What is This Chametz Stuff Anyway?

This is an attempt to define chametz, at least as far as we use the term in our lives.

If one of the five species of grain (wheat, oats, rye, barley, spelt) comes into contact with water after the stalks have been cut off the ground, i.e., if they become fermented, they become chametz. According to our Rabbinic authorities, this fermentation takes 18 minutes. Therefore, in order to be kosher l'pesach, matzah must take less than 18 minutes to prepare from the time the water and flour are first mixed to the time the matzah comes out of the oven.

The term chametz (or sometimes, chametz-dik) is applied not only to foodstuffs, but also to dishes and utensils in which foods that are chametz have been prepared during the year.

Beans, rice, corn, and peas are not among the grains that can become chametz, but many Jews (especially those from Eastern Europe) avoid using them during Pesach. This prohibition stems from the fact that flour can be made from these foods and it might be confusing. The rabbis felt that people might be tempted to use regular flour if they were allowed to use, for example, rice flour. To avoid such confusion, the rabbis decided that these foods (known as kitniot) should not be used at all during Pesach.

In our household, removing chametz means getting out of our possession all flour, cereal, pasta, legumes, cookies, crackers, tofu and tofu products (soybeans are legumes!), rice and rice products, breads, brownie and pancake mixes, dry beans and peas, anything with corn sweeteners, baking powder, yeast, grain alcohol (not just the rum, the vanilla extract, too), popcorn, tortillas, and so on. It is a massive undertaking. We generally list all the food in the house and assign each item to one of the following categories:

Use up or discard

This is the first rough sort of the "use up or discard" pile. Things are here for a variety of reasons -- they are chametz (Oreos, oatmeal, Cheerios, Ritz crackers, Bisquick); they are not chametz but because the package is open we will not keep it over Pesach (taco shells); or, for whatever reason, we no longer want to give shelf space to these items. Most of these things will be given away to non-Jews who can use them and who don't care that the package is open or the expiration date on the can is a few months in the past.

Give away to a food pantry (applies almost exclusively to unopened packages of food)

Some of this food is definitely chametz, like the noodles. Some is kitniot, like the pinto beans. In both cases, these are unopened packages of food that have not passed their expiration date.

Sell for the duration of Pesach through a rabbinnical agreement called mechirat chametz.

Girl Scout cookies just arrived! No way am I going to give those to a food pantry, nor are we likely to eat them all in the next couple of weeks. Therefore, these cookies, along with a few other items will be put into our freezer or onto a special shelf and sold. The sale arrangements are generally made through our local rabbi, though there are a number of web sites where you can arrange for the sale of your chametz.

Girl Scout cookies are definitely chametz, but there are other food items that we will not be using during Pesach, but will sell and (if all goes as planned) buy back after Peach is over.

Most of these items are not chametz, but in order to be absolutely certain that there is not even the slightest bit of chametz that got mixed in during manufacturing, we tend to buy only items that are certified as kosher for passover or that are allowed to be used during Pesach without a specific kosher-for-passover certification. These food items will be stored through Pesach and used afterwards without problems.

As I said, we have only done a rough sort so far. There is still a mixture of items in all the food-storage places throughout the house. The refrigerator, for example:

Eggs are okay for Pesach, so any we don't use before then can be kept for use during Pesach. The open marinara sauce will probably get used up, but any that's left over will probably be tossed out. Salsa ... depends on how much is left. The wheat germ, however, is chametz and if we can't find someone who can use it, we will discard it. On the shelf shown on the right, the hamburger buns are use or lose. And the ice box cookie dough (wrapped up in waxed paper) will definitely be used before Pesach.

And this is how it goes all the way through the pantries and garage shelves and refrigerators and freezers and anywhere else we happen to store food. Top of the bookshelf in the back hall where we keep unopened bags of chips, anyone?

On a more spiritual note, chametz can also stand for other things in our lives that we would like to get rid of. Leaven symbolizes the impurity that causes grains to "puff up" and change. The removal of impurities in ourselves can keep us from "puffing up" and moving away from G-d.