🕍✡️ Pre Passover PUTRESCIBLE Purge 🕍🕎 🗑️ הוצאת חמץ לפני פסח. חַג ✡️הַפֶּסַח‎

0:00 Williamsburg
22:50 Crown Heights
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It's a mitzvah and chiyuv to get rid of chametz. Passover, with its focus on removing chametz (leavened bread) from our homes, and then burning it, mirrors a spiritual purification process. Just as the Israelites purified themselves before the revelation at Mount Sinai, we engage in spiritual cleansing during Passover in preparation for its profound significance.

Chametz is "leaven" — any food that's made of grain and water that have been allowed to ferment and "rise." Bread, cereal, cake, cookies, pizza, pasta, and beer are blatant examples of chametz; but any food that contains grain or grain derivatives can be, and often is, chametz. Practically speaking, any processed food that is not certified "Kosher for Passover" may potentially include chametz ingredients.

Chametz is the antithesis of matzah, the unleavened bread we eat on Passover to recall the haste in which we left Egypt, and the humble faith by which we merited redemption. Matzah is the symbol of the Exodus, a central component of the Seder rituals, and the heart of the "Festival of Matzot" (as Passover is called in the Torah). And the flip-side of eating matzah is getting rid of chametz — and the egotism and spiritual coarseness it represents.

From the morning of Passover eve until the conclusion of the festival — for approximately eight days and eight hours — we avoid eating chametz or anything containing the slightest vestige thereof. It is also forbidden to own chametz, to derive benefit from chametz in any way, or to have chametz physically present in our domain, during this time.

Because chametz forms such a pervasive part of our lives during the rest of the year (try imagining a human habitat without a single cookie crumb!), getting rid of it for Passover is no easy task. Preparations to make the home "kosher for Passover" begin days, even weeks, before the festival. But for those who make the investment, the reward is an especially meaningful Festival of Freedom.

Attaining a chametz-free Passover includes six basic steps: cleaning the home, setting up the Passover kitchen, and selling, searching for, burning, and nullifying chametz.

Passover, also called Pesach (/ˈpɛsɑːx, ˈpeɪ-/;[1] Biblical Hebrew: חַג הַפֶּסַח‎, romanized: Ḥag hapPesaḥ, lit. 'Pilgrimage of the Passing Over'), is a major Jewish holiday for Rabbinical Judaism, Karaite Judaism, and Samaritanism, one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, that celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt.

According to the Book of Exodus, God commanded Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors so that the Angel of Death would pass over them: they would not be touched by the tenth Plague of Egypt, the death of the firstborn. After this Plague, Pharaoh ordered the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they wanted, and asked Moses to bless him in the name of God. The passage goes on to state that the Passover sacrifice recalls the time when God "passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt".

This story is recounted at the Passover Seder by reading the Haggadah. The Haggadah is a standardized ritual account of the Exodus story, in fulfillment of the command "And thou shalt tell [Higgadata] thy son in that day, saying: It is because of that which the LORD did for me when I came forth out of Egypt."

Pesach starts on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, which is considered the first month of the Hebrew year. The Rabbinical Jewish calendar is adjusted to align with the solar calendar in such a way that 15 Nisan always coincides with Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday. The Hebrew day starts and ends at sunset, so the holiday starts at sunset the day before. For example, in 2024, 15 Nisan coincides with Tuesday, April 23. Therefore, Pesach starts at sundown on Monday, April 22.

The Samaritan calendar differs because it does not limit the days on which the festival can begin and it has a different set of intercalary months, so Passover coincides with the Rabbinical celebration, occurs two days later, or occurs a whole lunar month later.

For Karaite Jews, the date of Passover is different. "Karaites rely on observations for the first day of the Hebrew-calendar month, when the crescent moon makes its first appearance. When there’s a discrepancy between the calendar and the first sighting, they ignore the former and treat the sighting as the true beginning of the month, dating any holidays in that month accordingly."