Chametz and related prohibitions

Eliyahu Ki Tov, The Book of Our Heritage


What is chametz? Anyone who mixed flour made from one of the five main types of grains with water and did not bake the resulting dough for the prescribed time created chametz according to the Torah definition. What five types of grains are we talking about? About hita (wheat), kusemet (spelt), seora (barley), shibolet-shual (oats) and chiffon (rye). It should be remembered that kusemet is a type of wheat, and shibolet-shual and chiffon are types of barley.


Our sages established that the time required for the dough to turn into chametz is 18 minutes if the dough is kneaded in the usual way. If they stand idle for 18 minutes after the water is added to the flour (that is, they are not processed), we have undeniable chametz. The time for kneading dough and other work procedures does not count towards 18 minutes. However, if the dough is heated during culinary procedures, it is not left even for the shortest time - unless you want it to turn into chametz.


However, dough mixed not with water, but with fruit juices, or even with water, provided that it was put in the oven before the prescribed 18 minutes had expired, does not become chametz. However, it is forbidden to knead the dough on Passover even in this way, since there is a fear that even a little water will get into it, or for some reason there will be a delay, the dough will not reach the oven on time and thus turn into chametz, and its the owner will violate the commandments of the Torah.


It is forbidden not only to eat chametz on Passover, but also to drink it soaked in any liquid. It is also prohibited for any other use. Chametz discovered on Passover must be burned or otherwise completely destroyed.


Any amount of chametz, no matter how small, is prohibited on Passover. Moreover, any admixture of it is prohibited: even if an insignificant amount of it is mixed with a thousand (or a million) times more of the permitted substance on Passover, the chametz will not be canceled, and the entire mixture will be prohibited. However, if a certain amount of chametz is mixed with another substance before Pesach, that is, at a time when chametz is permitted for consumption, it is invalidated if the volume of the other substance is 60 times greater than the volume of chametz. In this case, this mixture is permitted for use on Passover, provided that the chametz has “dissolved” in the permitted substance and has become invisible and indistinguishable.


It is forbidden to eat chametz from noon (that is, from the seventh solar hour) on the 14th of Nissan. Anyone who does this (even before Passover) violates the commandment of the Torah, which says: “Do not eat leaven” (Devarim 16:3). This means that chametz is already prohibited when the Passover sacrifice is offered.


Jewish tradition formulates this prohibition as follows: the prohibition is imposed on chametz from the moment when the Passover sacrifice can be offered, that is, from noon (the beginning of the seventh solar hour) on the 14th of Nissan. But that is not all. Our sages forbade eating chametz from the beginning of the sixth hour so that no one could mistakenly delay the meal and violate the prohibition of the Torah. Therefore, from the beginning of the sixth hour, it is forbidden not only to eat chametz, but also to use it in any way - during the sixth hour because of the ruling of the sages, and then because of the prohibition of the Torah. At the fifth solar hour there is a weaker restriction: chametz is no longer eaten during this hour, but it can still be used in other ways. This restriction was introduced because on a cloudy day the fifth hour can be confused with the sixth. Thus, Jewish law allows eating chametz on the 14th of Nissan only until the end of the fourth solar hour, and during the fifth hour it cannot be eaten, but can be used for other needs (Rambam).


We have already emphasized that we are not talking about an ordinary clock consisting of 60 minutes, but about a sundial, the duration of which depends on the length of the solar day.


Anyone who deliberately eats kezayit chametz during Passover—from the evening of the 15th of Nissan until the end of the day of the 21st of Nissan—is subject to the heaviest punishment of karet (a spiritual death sentence passed by Heaven—the expulsion of the offender's soul from the Jewish community). This is directly stated in the Torah: “Whoever eats leaven, that soul will be destroyed from among Israel” (Shemot 12:15).


Chametz that “survived” Passover in the possession of a Jew is prohibited for any use forever. This “fine” was imposed by our sages on those who violated the commandments of the Torah “let it not be seen” and “let it not be present.” It also applies to those who left undestroyed or unsold chametz by mistake or for reasons beyond their control - so that no one would think of leaving the chametz in their possession on Pesach in order to use it after the holiday.