SourDough Starter & Mechiras Chometz

Can One Sell That Which They Care For?

March, 2023

Because the following relates to the rav’s mechiras chametz, a very brief review is in order.

I. Quick Primer on the Chometz Sale

The sale of chometz mustn’t be seen as a subterfuge; an insincere-albeit-sophisticated ploy. Indeed, there is a girsa (a differing text) in the Tosefta that while clearly approving the efficacy of such sales before Pesach ends with the words, “…so long as it does not become a subterfuge” (Behag, see Chasam Sofer and Beis Yosef). It is clear from the early sources –see Shulchan Aruch, siman 548:3 –that for such a sale to be valid one would have to physically remove the chomtez from their possession -or have the goy take it.

However, due to our relative wealth today and the amount of chometz in many homes, the possibility of removing all chametz from our possession has become profoundly more arduous (see Bach regarding Jews who were in a chometz business and couldn’t feasibly remove all of their expensive chometz investments). Due to this, and in concert with other halachos (see, siman 440:2), the Mishnah Berurah (448:12) and others explain why today we can be lenient and simply cover or hide sold chometz with a mechitzah/partition (of at least ten tefachim – about 38 inches. See also, siman 440). This is acceptable – in place of removal of the chometz – due to a relatively new innovation: the rav does not just sell the chometz, but he also sells the rooms/spaces in/on which they are (really, the rav will often not sell the rooms, rather rent/lease them. See shu’t Chasam Sofer 113, Shulchan Aruch Harav, and Moadim V’zmanim vol. 3 at length).

What arrives from the above is that the sale as we know it today – writing one’s name and other information in a shtar harshah and giving it to the rav who will then sell on that person’s behalf – began in earnest around 1856 (shu’t Shoel Umeishiv. See Rav Zevin’s monumental Moadim B’Halacha).    

 The amount for all the chometz being sold may come to the millions of dollars, so the goy gives a down-payment, with the rest due on or before motzai Pesach. If at that time he decides not to pay the rest, the rav will purchase it all back from him.

Even those who are machmir not to sell real chometz are most often advised to still go through with a sale as a fail-safe.

With this elementary background, I can now share some recent cases.

II.  The Case of the Rebbe’s Bread

      A few days before yom tov, someone asked about their daughter’s science-fair project which was full of pure chometz that was continuing to ferment, and that took months to get to this point.

   “We certainly have no plans of ever selling this for good. It would be impossible to begin again! While the goy will likely sell it back, does the fact that we have such concern negate the sale?”

    This was a great question! In comparison, someone with expensive liqueur may feel quietly disappointed if the goy came and drank it, but this is very different than something one is actively protecting.

     Another good example is sour dough starter. When the Torah cites ‘seor’ as chometz, it’s not referring to our dry yeast -a relatively recent concept. Rather to ‘starter dough’. Indeed, the etymology for the term ‘Sour Dough’ may come from that very word! In any event, my wife has been making sour dough for years, long before its recent resurgence. Her ‘starter’ has traveled the world and is used in many, many homes and bakeries. Can this be sold for Pesach? Is there an issue of rotzah b’kiyumah – intensely eager for its continued existence, use, and ownership after Pesach?

     This reminds me of the shailah regarding the soon-to-be-ger who was asked to be mekabel oyl mitzvos and responded, “Yes, of course! However, I just learned sefer Chofetz Chaim, and I can tell you for certain that I will not be able to refrain from lashon hara”. At what point is an acceptance negated by an emotion of feeling?

     The poskim discuss this ger issue; (See Avodah Zara 64a for what follows, which is the main source in chazal relating to desires of the heart in an item’s continued existence; although they were there discussing avodah zara and yayin nesech).

      Relating to chometz, a parallel and intriguing situation is considered in Rav Gedalia Felder’s Yesodei Yeshurin (d. 1991 -volume 6: p. 304-307). He brings a case from the shu”t Avnei Zikaron by Rav Alter Shaul Pepper, an early New York City posek. This teshuvah was written in 1929 New York, seven years before he was niftar. The case concerned an admu”r who gave a chossid sherayim of challah that the chossid wished to save. So, before Pesach, he took the piece of bread and secured it a protective bag, declared it hefker (ownerless) and placed it in a public domain, but where it could not easily be spotted. After Pesach he retrieved it.    

       Is this chometz permissible after Pesach? Was his hefkeirus sincere? Rav Felder’s editor recorded that this teshuva was in the second volume of Rav Pepper’s sefer, siman 6. I rushed to see it in inside and saw that the shailah was sent from Litta (to New York!) by Rav Shlomo Nosson Kotler, who Rav Lazer Gordon of Telz called the ‘Ketzos’ of our generation! (See post where we delve further into his amazing life).

      After spending a few minutes researching Rav Kotler’s life, I then went back to learn the actual teshuva, only to realize this had nothing to do with the shailah at hand; the editor wrote the wrong siman! It was rather #10 in Rav Pepper’s sefer! This shailah was sent to New York from the rav of the famous Chevreh Tehillim beis medresh in Budapest, Rav Shmuel Baruch Shmelhoisen (d.1945).  

   Rav Pepper responds by proving from a Pri Chodosh (Rav Chizkiyah de Silav, d. late 17^th century; siman 477) regarding a man who had some ‘segulah chometz’ and similarly disposed of it in a reshus harabim only to repossess after yom tov. The Pri Chodosh ruled that since he was ratzah b’kiyumah/he desired its existence his hefkeiros is meaningless.

     However, the Pri Chodesh goes on to state that simply desiring its existence would only negate a hefkeiros. If, however, a goy would purchase and take it from one’s property, then the mere fact that one secretly hopes to get it back after Pesach would not contravene such an action/sale.

     It would seem then  that a chossid who sells such chometz, as well as starter or an experiment, would be fine.

     However, the shu’t Arugas Habosem (Rav Moshe Greenwald, d. 1910) discusses a case of the Belzer rebbe’s sherayim, and rules that even if it’s sold to a goy it would still be forbidden after Pesach. He says to burn it before Pesach.

     Interestingly, the (fourth) Belzer rebbe, the Kedushas Aaron (d. 1957), was himself asked about such chometz and cryptically replied, “The chassidim know what to do with it” (Beis Yisroel, volume 8, p. 206).

    Once burned, it would seem one would keep the ashes for safekeeping (Avnei Zikaron ibid., and 3:25).

        While researching the lives of many mentioned above, I reached out to R’ Baruch Amsel, the creator and curator of the astounding tool – kevarim.com. When I mentioned the shailah at hand, he shared that it’s discussed in the Nittei Gavreil, zol gezunt zein (Pesach, volume 1, p. 224). After mentioning that some either consume or burn such sherayim before Pesach, he then mentions that the minhag Chabad and Karlin is to include it in the sale.

      Rav Yitzchak Isaac Leibes (d. 2000, head of the Igud HaRabannim in America) writes that there are a few poskim to rely on that would allow one to keep such chometz after a sale. He quotes from the Yeshuas Yaakov (d. 1839; siman 450:5) regarding a starter dough. The Yeshuas Yaakov’s language language, while not affirmative toward such sales, is not restrictive either.

    I would advise anyone connected to any of the above questions, speak to their rav.

The above was written on the yartzeit of Rav Pepper (19 Nissan, 1936). May his neshama have an Aliyah, and may he be a meilitz yosher to all the American rabbamim who follow in his ways!