When To Check For Chametz On Pesach This Year 5785 / 2025

0:08... place ten small pieces of chametz around the house, as it is customary for a family member to do, and then search for them using a candle. If using a candle is dangerous, you may use a flashlight instead. Uh, the custom is to have one of your family members put ten small pieces of chametz in different parts of the house. Then, you go look for it with a candle, or if it's dangerous, you could use a flashlight. Some say it's very good to use also a feather to look in different creases and search for the chametz. However, some chachamim from a few hundred years ago actually frowned upon this practice.

1:18This custom of hiding chametz in case a person doesn't find it, nonetheless, the person that hides it should, if you have a big house, write it on a piece of paper where you hid every single one, in case the family members that are looking for the chametz cannot find it. but this is part of the mitzvot of Pesach. You have to make a specific blessing on the matzah. You will find that in the Haggadah, which is a specific prayer book for the time of Pesach. So there's a special prayer that you do. Now, since the actual holiday itself doesn't begin until Saturday, what happens there? That's really where the confusion is because even though you're looking for chametz, you're still technically allowed to eat chametz throughout all of Thursday night, all of Friday, and until Pesach officially begins somewhere around 10 to 11 o'clock a.m. on Shabbat (Saturday) afternoon.

2:22uh so, uh, the reality is that you're looking for chametz, but you're still going to have some chametz left. So, what do you do with this chametz? This chametz that you're going to be using to eat Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday morning. you put it in one part of your house, whether it's going to be a certain section of your kitchen or wherever you want to put it, but it should all be in one place. The rest of the house should already be clean for Pesach, ready for Pesach. Just the utensils, pots, pans, and food that's still chametz that you're going to be using for those next day and a half should be in one section in the house. Uh, now, until again, Saturday, which, again, over here, for example, the last time to eat chametz is going to be the morning meal, the morning meal of Shabbat, which has to end here in Florida, in Cooper City, by 11:20 a.m.

3:29Okay, in Israel, on the other hand, where Abba Ephraim is, it's around 10 a.m., 10:15, something like that. So you have to check with the apps or websites you have, based on your zip code, when the last time to eat chametz is on Shabbat. For all of us, it's Shabbat, but just at different times depending on where you are in the world. so, which means that, again, you're checking for chametz that's not the one that you're going to be eating during the next day or in the next half an hour or so. Okay, after that, on Friday, you have to burn the chametz. So burn the chametz that you're not going to be eating. Burn the chametz, and this is going to be on Friday morning. And even though you're still allowed, again, you're allowed to eat chametz on Friday night and actually need to eat chametz technically for Shabbat and for Saturday morning, you still have chametz that you're not going to eat.

4:31Now, if it is closed packaging of things, and you want to keep them, then you can sell that Chametz. It's completely closed, untouched, and so on. You can sell that Chametz. There are different websites, or your local rabbi in the community, I'm sure, has some type of arrangement. with a non-Jew who would buy the chametz for the duration of the holiday, uh, so you could sell the chametz that's only closed. But if you have chametz that's, uh, that's opened, uh, unless it's expensive liquor, uh, you have to throw it out. Don't, uh, play games with this. And also, if it's a, uh, uh, things that, uh, are, uh, are not gonna keep, you know, because they're going to expire and things like that. Again, this is part of the chametz that you burn. As part of the burning of the chametz, most Jewish communities have a fire, usually in some type of barrel, where everybody throws their chametz on Friday morning. The time to do it is like it would be done in a typical year—sometime in the late morning, a little bit before noon.

5:47before noon, selling the chametz that you want to keep to use after Pesach is ideally to be done on Thursday. However, it's okay to even sell the chametz this year on Friday because, again, you're technically allowed to eat it until Shabbat morning. uh but uh ideally to sell it on Thursday uh but uh you can sell it even on Friday. I wouldn't recommend uh uh waiting for the uh last minute when you're burning the chametz. Uh, remember to do the uh the blessing. Uh, but when you when you're selling the chametz, that you do without a bittul blessing. There's no uh uh the blessing that you're doing as far as the bittul. the cancellation of the chametz that's left, you do on Shabbat afternoon. Shabbat afternoon is when you do that particular blessing. So now, on Friday.

6:53you're allowed to do melachot, because it's not Yom Tov, so you're allowed to do melachot, you know, with cooking, cleaning, whatever it is you need to do. But again, remember, you're preparing for a long holiday, and it's an important holiday. This is a fundamental aspect of the preparation. one of the foundations of Judaism. It's not one of those holidays where it's like a custom. You have to be prepared for this. As a Rabbi, I must emphasize that this mitzvah is mandatory for every Jew, as it ensures all members of Am Yisrael can properly celebrate the holiday with dignity and joy. The importance of kimcha de'pischa stems from the fundamental halacha that one must ensure everyone can experience true simcha, happiness, during the holiday.