Spring Cleaning for Chametz a
‘Labor of Love’
R ight about now, the backyards of some
Jewish households are becoming fi ve-star
restaurants for Philadelphia’s squirrels,
birds and deer.

Leavened cookies, cakes and bread buried deep
in the pantry are thrown to the wildlife, eliminat-
ing the risk of temptation for those observing the
upcoming holiday. As Passover approaches, one
man’s trash is an animal’s repast.

With the fi rst seder on the 15th of Nisan — or
April 15 — on the horizon, marking the fi rst day of
Passover, Jews are well into the process of purging
their chametz. While some opt to get creative, and
others keep to tradition when it comes to their
Passover spring cleaning, all observing the holiday
are looking to extract the spiritual benefi ts that
abstaining from leavened goods has to off er.

Particularly because avoiding chametz is more
than just resisting sandwiches for a week.

While Jews partake in the eating of matzah to
commemorate the speed at which our ancestors fl ed
Egypt — so fast that the bread they were baking in
preparation didn’t have time to rise — matzah is only
a small portion of the Passover dietary strictures.

According to Ko Kosher Service Rabbi Amiel
Novoseller, Jews are forbidden by Jewish law to eat
fi ve particular grains on the holiday — wheat, barley,
spelt, oats and rye — because of their ability to puff
up, or become “gebrokts,” when exposed to water.

26 APRIL 14, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
For some Orthodox Jews, this rules out the possi-
bility of eating matzah ball soup for the pre-brisket
appetizer during the seder.

And for Novoseller, keeping things non-gebrokts
means being extra cautious with the matzah and
grains he has in possession. He won’t fry a piece
of matzah in case a small part of it still contains a
grain that is holding water that could expand; he
argued that keeping wheat fl our for making matzah
during the holiday is still a no-go for most house-
holds, as that fl our could have absorbed moisture
during production, transit or in the home.

With such uncompromising halachot by which
to abide, cleaning one’s house of chametz means
getting rid of prohibited foods, but also sweeping,
vacuuming and isolating dishes and surfaces that
are not kosher for Passover because they have been
touched by chametz.

Chabad Rabbi Eli Gurevitz, director of the Rohr
Center for Jewish Life, approaches the task with
extra urgency. Th e Haverford-based house is shared
with dozens of Jewish students from Bryn Mawr,
Haverford and Swarthmore colleges, who attend
weekly Shabbat services there, even the week before
Passover, where carb-craving young adults count on
eating challah.

Th is year, Gurevitz — and other Orthodox Jews
who keep shomer Shabbat — are lucky: Passover
starts on a Saturday night, meaning they have a
whole week to get rid of any challah.

Still, it’s a six-day turnaround.

“We try to look at it as a labor of love because of
what comes aft er it, when there’s 100 people sitting
around the table at the seder,” Gurevitz said.

At this point, Gurevitz and his family have a
system down. Th ey vacuum and clean their carpets,
cover all surfaces of their kitchen with foil until it
“looks like a rocketship” and kosher their sinks with
hot water and a hot iron.

“You really only have to clean the areas where there’s
a probability or possibility of chametz,” he said.

But for all the cleaning and preparing to rid
their house of all their chametz, even a crumb, the
Gurevitz family still keep all their chametz in their
house, stowed away in a small room and explicitly
labeled, so no one accidentally opens the door and
snags a snack.

Having chametz in a pantry isn’t the same as
having a skeleton in the closet. It’s a practice many
Jews abide by over the holiday because of a halachic
technicality: One can physically have chametz in
their house, as long as they don’t legally own it.

In a twist of classic Jewish loopholes and clever
economics, some Jews will sell their chametz to a
trusted non-Jew, who legally owned the chametz for
the duration of the holiday. When Passover ends,
the gentile will then kindly sell the chametz back to
their original owners.

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SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER