, through Sunday, March 24th at noon EDT.
One must not have any hametz (leaven) in his or
her legal possession during Pesah.
After doing a complete and thorough cleaning of your
house/apartment/dorm room, you should throw away any opened packages of
hametz, thereby beginning Pesah in a hametz-free
environment.
Consider donating all new and closed hametz
items to a local food pantry.
Because of the complexities of our economy, it may be
far too costly to get rid of all of your sealed and unopened hametz.
For this reason, a ceremony was developed which in effect "sells" your
hametz to a non-Jew for the duration of the holiday.
Shtar Harsha'ah
This symbolic sale is carried out by a rabbi whom you authorize by filling out a shtar harsha'ah,
or document of permission. The rabbi then sells your hametz by writing a shtar
m'khirah, or document of sale.
If you'd like to learn more about the origin of these
practices, you can find the sources in the Shulhan Arukh (Code of Jewish
Law, 1554 CE) of Rabbi Yosef Karo, in the volume Orah Hayyim, sections
445, 446 and 448:3. Other books like Isaac Klein's A Guide to Jewish
Religious Practice and Michael Strassfeld's The Jewish Holidays are good
resources as well.
For up-to-date information on prohibited and permitted foods, check out
the Rabbinical Assembly Web site at
www.rabbinicalassembly.org.
On Monday morning, March 25, remove and burn all hametz by the
fifth hour after sunrise (see a haggadah for the text). Your home/room
should be completely kosher for Pesah at this time.
