Pesach Prep Pondering

[gnomi]

If I have some (left over from last Pesach) sugar packets (marked OK-P), do I have to move them into my snack drawer and sell them with my chametz, or can I carry them over from last Pesach to this Pesach? And what about the teabag that is sitting in my pencil tray from last Pesach?

Ah, the great questions of pre-Pesach.

Comments

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

You could carry the sugar and tea over, couldn't you? I am selling all my stuff to Annie, for a $1.00 *G*. The new Rabbi wanted $18.00 for the congregational chametz, which I thought a bit on the pricey side.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

The sugar, I'm almost positive, I can carry over -- they're completely sealed and haven't been in contact with any other foodstuffs.

The tea is more puzzling, because the teabag, while in its own envelope, is not completely sealed. Though it's in my pencil drawer in my desk, where no food ever goes.

Our local synagogue doesn't have a set donation for the sale of chametz. The man who facilitates it just hands you an empty envelope, and you can put whatever you want in it. I like that system a lot.

[cellio]

I agree on the sugar. The real question is whether any mingling could have happened, and with something that's still sealed the answer is clearly no.

Though it's in my pencil drawer in my desk, where no food ever goes.

What about other teabags? If so, were any of them flavored with anything that could be a problem? How much do you want to stress over a single teabag? Personally, I'd sell it (or otherwise dispose of it, like drinking it before Pesach).

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

But, for instance, matzah is chametz after a year even if it is in a hermetically sealed package. But matzah is a special case.

Hmm. I'd have to say AYLOR it.

matzah is chametz after a year?

[zsero.livejournal.com]

No, it's not. Stale, but not chametz. And a minute in the oven can usually fix stale.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I love your icon.

Re: matzah is chametz after a year?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I learned differently: that matzah is kosher for pesach for a specific year, and not for any other year.

Re: matzah is chametz after a year?

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Then you learned wrong. There really is no basis whatsoever for such a notion.

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

Our local synagogue doesn't have a set donation for the sale of chametz. The man who facilitates it just hands you an empty envelope, and you can put whatever you want in it. I like that system a lot.

That's what our old Rabbi used to do - and then he'd take the donations and give them to charity or whatever. I like the system you have - it lets people do whatever they're comfortable with. I don't know what Rabbi Panitz is going to do with the money, but I have a sinking feeling it won't go to charity, much as I hate to say that.

There is no moral to this story. Nothing about your tea bag, either.

[half-double.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if I've ever told you this story before, but:

In the Spring semester of my senior year of college, I took a class co-taught by David Itzkowitz from the History department & Robert Warde from the English department. They'd been friends for over 30 years & occasionally co-teaching classes for nearly 20. Since Robert isn't Jewish, and David is, David sold Robert his chametz every year. One day in class, Robert said, "David is selling me his bread for Passover. He thinks it's just a symbolic sale, but I figure, if I own it for a week, I should at least have the right to sneak into his house in the middle of the night and make myself a sandwich."

I don't know if David sells his chametz to Robert anymore.

Re: There is no moral to this story. Nothing about your tea bag, either.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

The sale is not symbolic. It's 100% real and legal, or it won't work. He can't break in in the middle of the night to retrieve his property, any more than he could if he left his jacket at someone's house, but he can certainly call during normal hours. But if he does so, then when he sells it back there'll be less inventory, so it will be worth less, by the value of whatever he consumes. Usually the repurchase price is a bit over the sale price, so that the buyer makes a small profit; but if he bought $500 worth of stuff, and was expecting to sell it back for $510, but in the meantime he ate $5 worth, then he can't expect to still get $510 for what's left.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I made it a while back for this sort of random frumkeit post thingie.

Re: There is no moral to this story. Nothing about your tea bag, either.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Hee!

We used to sell my chametz to a now-former coworker of mine. And after Pesach, we'd buy it back.

Re: There is no moral to this story. Nothing about your tea bag, either.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Uh...I think that may have been meant humorously.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

If you want to be paranoid about the sugar packets, I suppose you could wipe them with a tissue or something, in case they've been lying around where chametz could have come in contact with their outsides. But of course even if you knew for a fact that they had been lying in breadcrumbs all year it wouldn't affect the sugar inside the packets, it would just mean that you'd want to be careful where you put them, not bring them to the table, clean your hands after handling them, etc.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- this is on my desk at work. They've been lying around in the same pencil drawer as the teabag. I think I'm fine with it.

Re: There is no moral to this story. Nothing about your tea bag, either.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the humour depends on the idea that it's not a real sale, it's just some symbolic flummery to soothe the religious conscience. Because if, say, I bought your car, with the understanding that if I decided not to keep it you would buy it back, and I said that while it was mine I might take it for a spin, I don't think that would be very funny.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's supposed to go to charity, it's supposed to be the rabbi's broker fee, to pay him for his trouble. I think traditionally this used to be one of rabbis' main sources of income, particularly in poorer communities where they didn't get much in the way of actual salary.

Re: matzah is chametz after a year?

[ckd]

There is if you're trying to sell people more matzah! :-)

[zmook.livejournal.com]

Poor gentile boy is confused. 'Chametz', I infer, is the stuff you're not allowed to own during Pesach. But why is your synagogue selling it to *you*?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Chametz is, indeed, the stuff that one cannot eat or own on Pesach. The synagogue isn't selling it to us, but rather facilitating the sale of it from the community members to a non-Jew. We sell the chametz for the length of the holiday, and then it is sold back at the end of Passover.

We give money to the synagogue to have them act as our agent in this transaction.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the sugar packets should be fine. As for the teabag, if there's been no food in the drawer it's probably OK... but are you sure you won't get pencil shavings in your tea? :-)