A Pesach Roundup

1. Here is the Haggadah of the Ri m’Josh, still in need of an overhaul.

2. Some Jewish Link articles,

   1. from last Pesach: The Person and the Pesach, and some “hidden” derashot

   2. Selling Your Chametz and, when there is an exchange in kinyan sudar with your rabbi, who is acquiring what? And is it when he hands you the handkerchief or when he hands it back?

   3. Unique Olives, having to do with the size of a kezayit and how Rav Kanievsky’s position was censored

   4. Eating Matzah Gluttonously, and how a certain chumra may lead to unfulfillment

   5. Se’or Loser and my conspiracy theory about owning chametz on Pesach.

3. F(e)asting on Erev Pesach, and whether there is really a minhag to fast.

4. Nullified Kitnitot, where I disagree with a kashrut alert, how it is phrased, in terms of the halachics of it. Nullified kitniyot should not mean that something is not kosher lefesach. And a follow up, Ceres Lehach’is.

5. On the other hand, the pierogis at Costco are certainly not kosher for Passover.

6. The No True Gadol Fallacy, where no gadol goes to a hotel for Pesach. On the other hand, there are apparently kashrut

7. My roundup of Pesach parshablog posts, back in 2015. There are a whole lot of them. A few parshablog posts came after that roundup, including:

   1. The size of a kezayit as a transformative chumra, and not in a good way.

   2. A brief boosting / reaction to the Absolut Haggadah. I no longer see that haggadah online, because Google sites went down.

   3. Some images from a haggadah from the 1500s, and some thoughts about it.

   4. The bread of affliction, which our ancestors ate in Egypt.

8. “Appreciating” Post Pesach Store Lists. Wouldn’t it be better to keep folks in the dark, given that it is a safek derabbanan that it not possible to determine easily?

9. Most recently, Can ChatGPT be trusted to bake your matzas?

Some social media posts from over the years:

(1) About kol dichfin and a Talmudic source for the phrasing

Why do we say

כל דכפין ייתי ויכול, כל דצריך ייתי ויפסח?

To emulate Rav Huna, since we are doing Korech.

Taanis 20b:

כרך ריפתא הוה פתח לבביה ואמר כל מאן דצריך ליתי וליכול אמר רבא כולהו מצינא מקיימנא לבר מהא דלא מצינא למיעבד משום דנפישי בני חילא דמחוזא

(2) The Rasha of the Seder, and Orthopraxy:

The "rasha" of the seder is one who actively undermines the proceedings. Not only does he internally take himself out of the klal, but attacks the point of this all. There is a time and way to respond, but not during the seder night. The idea of hakheh et shinav is not to be diverted by trolls.

*However*, that one who participates, despite internal beliefs, cannot be called a rasha, and is not the "rasha" of the seder. They might participate because they are Orthoprax, or even totally non-observant but participating in a family gathering.

At least, that is how I would interpret it. Nazir 23a:

אמר רבה בר בר חנה אמר רבי יוחנן: מאי דכתיב: 'כי ישרים דרכי ה' וצדיקים ילכו בם ופושעים יכשלו בם' (הושע יד,י) ? משל, לשני בני אדם שצלו את פסחיהן, אחד אכלו לשום מצוה ואחד אכלו לשום אכילה גסה. זה שאכלו לשום מצוה – 'וצדיקים ילכו בם', וזה שאכלו לשום אכילה גסה – 'ופושעים יכשלו בם'. אמר ליה ריש לקיש: האי רשע קרית ליה? נהי דלא קא עביד מצוה מן המובחר, פסח מיהא קא עביד!"

Rabbi Yochanan tries to interpret a verse to distinguishing between one who eats the korban pesach, one to fulfill the mitzvah and the other, (Orthoprax, or non-observant) who eats to fill (or overstuff) his stomach. Resh Lakish objects that such a person cannot be called a rasha, for he still is participating in eating the korban pesach.

(3) Pesach pun / practice:

While I don't point to the zroa and say pesach Zeh (unlike matzah and maror), I do have the practice of seizing it and stretching it across the table each time I encounter uvezroa netuyah

(4) Another practice (for reals)

Drink 8 cups at the Seder. 4 of wine, 4 of coffee.

This because the Seder drags on so long, so we drift off. Tikkun leil Shavuot and other practices gained widespread adoption with the introduction of coffee to Europe.

(5) Hunting Hares, Studio Ghibli Style

(6) An historical question:

In Judea, did they eat matzah on erev Pesach?

(7) And another minhag:

Sperber, in Minhagei Yisrael, discusses a minhag of the Jews of Rome, that instead of the first-born males fasting on erev Pesach, and hearing a siyum so that they don't have to fast, this is done instead by the women who have gotten married over the past year.

... They call it the Roman kallah siyum.

(8) Reclining,

Nobody reclines at the Seder nowadays. We just sit awkwardly at an odd angle, which is less comfortable than normal sitting.

(9) People criticizing going away for Pesach, as a luxury, and a deviation from the traditional practice:

Two thoughts about this.

1) Going away for Pesach is the historical, original way it was to be done. People left their homes and went away to Yerushalayim, in order to be able to bring the korban pesach. And they had a waiter, called a shamash.

2) It is indeed an excess. However, I would point to excessive chumra-ism as a major cause, rather than materialism. (Probably depends on which group though.) I know several people who have the bar set so high for cleaning their home that they just give up, saying it is impossible. Instead, they go away for Pesach. So too for food preparation. Yes, in fact, the food is probably less kosher for Pesach, but the fault lies on the mashgiach, not on them.

(10) In response to a VIN article about how the Liska Rebbe perpetuates the minhag of no matza on Pesach.

I would venture that it may be BECAUSE of the "highest level of stringencies" which they instituted that this could happen.

"The Satmar Rebbe, Reb Yoel ZT”L once discovered a small unbaked pocket of flour in one of his Matzahs during Pesach. Horrified, he said “If this could happen in our (Satmar) Matzah Bakery in which I instituted the highest level of stringencies and hashgachic care; now I truly understand why my grandfather the “Yismach Moshe” had the minhag not to eat Matzah on Pesach. That year the Rebbe refrained from eating Gebrochts on the last day of Pesach, with his reasons ultimately known only to him. "

In the comment section, I explain:

]Person], see what the Alter Rebbe writes here. Basically, the real halacha is that while being kneaded, dough cannot become chametz. A chumra was adopted to count the 18 minutes *including* the time the dough was being kneaded. And so everyone hurried, and some flour didn't get mixed with water.

So the solution should not be to adopt more chumras, but rather to evaluate where these chumras have taken us.