|
The Mitzvah to Destroy Hametz on the Fourteenth of Nissan
Rabbi Joshua Kulp
Traditionally, Jews have begun to study the laws of Pesah thirty days before the holiday (see for instance Pesahim 6a). Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel reduces this to two weeks, from the beginning of the month of Nissan. But 2000 years later and thirty days is simply not enough to really learn the laws of Pesah. Our material lives are more complicated than they were back then, and our halakhic system is correspondingly far more expansive. With that in mind, in this column we will begin to learn the laws of Pesah and we will continue until the holiday. So don’t panic, you still have about ten weeks. No need to start kashering or cooking quite yet. But hopefully those who read this column will be a little better prepared for the festival this year.
Hametz is a uniquely prohibited substance in the Torah, for not only is a Jew not allowed to eat hametz on Pesah, and also not allowed to derive benefit from it, she is also not allowed to even own hametz on Pesah, and indeed hametz must be destroyed erev Pesah, on the fourteenth of Nissan. The prohibition of possessing any hametz on Pesah is quite clear in the Torah. Exodus 12:19 reads, “No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days.” A chapter later the prohibition reappears in 13:7, “No leavened bread shall be found with you, and no leaven shall be found in all your territory.” It is repeated in Deuteronomy 16:4, “For seven days no leaven shall be found with you in all your territory.” However, the mitzvah to destroy hametz before Pesah is not stated as clearly. Obviously, in order to avoid the prohibitions in Exodus, one would have to remove all of the hametz from one’s possession. But from where do we know that there is a positive commandment to do so? And from where do we know that one must destroy the hametz, and that this mitzvah would not be fulfilled in some other way, such as eating it, selling it, or feeding it to the animals?
Beyond prohibiting the possession of hametz, Exodus 12:15 might be read as implying that there is a mitzvah to actually destroy hametz. Exodus 12:15 reads, “Seven days you shall eat matzot; on the very first day you shall cause leaven to cease to be in your houses (תשביתו), for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.”
The word תשביתו is a verbal form of the root שבת, which means to cease. Roughly translated it means, “cause to cease to exist.” The Aramaic Targum translates as תבטלון which means the same thing–nullify from existence. This is not the later “bittul” or “nullification” that we practice today, but rather a physical nullification. Still, this is not quite the same as “destroy” and theoretically could just mean “get rid of” and would be fulfilled by selling or eating or perhaps even by never having it in the first place.
However, from the outset, rabbis assume that the Torah’s mandate להשבית is performed through some act of physical destruction, and the earliest most literal understanding is that the hametz must be burned. In the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael in a discussion concerning the date on which hametz must be destroyed, R. Yonatan implies that since destruction is done by burning and burning is prohibited on Yom Tov (except for cooking) the Torah must be mandating that the hametz be burned on the day before Pesah. The premise for the entire discussion is that there is a mitzvah to burn the hametz.
In Mishnah Pesahim 2:1, Rabbi Yehudah, a tanna known for adhering to the literal reading of the Torah, reiterates that the mitzvah of destroying hametz must occur by burning. However, the sages disagree and rule that “one may even crumble it and throw it into the wind or cast it into the sea.” In Pesahim 27b-28a R. Yehudah and the sages use biblical verses and analogies to support their ideas and it seems like the sages have the upper hand. R. Yehudah is silenced by their arguments. Furthermore, there is a tendency to rule according to the majority opinion and not singular sages. And indeed, the Rambam, Laws of Hametz and Matzah, rules in accordance with the sages–hametz can be destroyed in ways other than burning. Nevertheless, the Tosafot, based on an anonymous mishnah (Temurah 7:5) rule in accordance with Rabbi Yehudah–the only proper method for destroying hametz is through burning. This sets up an Ashkenazi (burning) / Sephardi (any method) disagreement that lasts throughout the period of the rishonim (medieval commentators and halakhic authorities). There is one major mitigating factor–a baraita on Pesahim 12b, in which R. Yehudah admits that hametz may be destroyed in any manner when “not in the time of its destruction.” The meaning of this phrase is debated by Rashi and Rabbenu Tam in a Tosafot on that page, but I do not want to get into this detail here.
R. Yosef Karo, in the Shulkhan Arukh 445:1 codifies the Sephardi opinion–hametz can be destroyed in ways other than burning. However, R. Moshe Isserles chimes in that “the custom is to burn it.” The strong preference for fire could be the result of two factors, one halakhic and one sociological. The halakhic justification is that all positions agree that burning is a valid form of destroying hametz. One who burns their hametz is on safer halakhic ground. The social justification, while not articulated in halakhic literature, is that burning hametz is a far more satisfying ritual than simply crumbling it up and throwing it into the wind or sea. A proper analogy would be book burning (I’m not advocating this, just referring to the act). When people want to destroy books due to their opposition to their content, they do not get together and have a, “throw the books into the garbage dump” party. They burn them. Burning in order to destroy is a far more demonstrative and memorable act.
In the end, the common practice is to in the days leading up to Pesah throw away or give away as much hametz as possible. This is an act of removal that prepares us for the fourteenth. On the morning before the seder, Jews gather together around the world and both Ashkenazim and Sephardim follow R. Yehudah–they burn their hametz, sending a massive smoke signal that the seder is only hours away.
| 
