Biur Chametz

From Halachipedia

How to do Biur Chametz

  1. The minhag is to burn Chametz (until it becomes coals or ashes) during the day, however, one fulfills the mitzvah by destroying the Chametz in any fashion. [1]
  2. If someone forgot the beracha the night before on the bedika, he can recite the next day on the burning. [2]
  3. One should cut the chametz into thin slices in order for it to burn properly> [3]
  4. One should leave over at least a kezayit of chametz that he is not selling to a non-jew in order to properly fulfill this mitzva. [4]
  5. One fulfills the mitzvah of destroying the Chametz by flushing it down the toilet. [5]
  6. If the chametz has turned into charcoal that is considered burnt enough. [6]
  7. If one puts Chametz in one’s private garbage bin one should either pour Ajax on the Chametz to make it totally inedible [7], or put it in the street and declare that it be ownerless in front of three people. [8]. One can also include them in the sale of the chametz to a non-jew but then they cannot be used by him over pesach. [9]
  8. It’s preferable to burn the Chametz without dousing it in gasoline or lighter fluid so that one can destroy the Chametz with fire and not to make it inedible using any other means. [10] If the chametz will not burn in time without the gasoline then one should pour it to speed up the burning. [11]

When

  1. If one sold one’s Chametz one shouldn’t do Biur Chametz until after the Rabbi sells the Chametz to the goy which is usually done at the beginning of the 5th hour. [12]
  2. Some say that one should specifically burn it at the beginning of the fifth hour. [13]
  3. If chametz is found during pesach, then all agree that burning is the proper method of biur chametz. [14]
    1. The nullification during the day should be done before the sixth hour, so that the chametz that you nullify is still yours when you nullify it. [15] but after the burning. [16]

References

  1. ↑ S”A and Rama 445:1, Mishna Brurah 445:1. This is based on the Mishna in Pesachim 21a which records an argument regarding how to fulfill the obligation in Shemot 12:15 תַּשְׁבִּיתוּ שְּׂאֹר מִבָּתֵּיכֶם. Rabbi Yehuda says the only way is to burn while chachamim say you can burn it, crumble it, or throw it into the river. Kaf Hachayim 445:11 says that there is special kabbalistic importance to burning the chametz because it symbolizes burning the evil inclination.
  2. ↑ Mishna Berura 423:4
  3. ↑ Chazon Ovadia Pesach page 40.
  4. ↑ Mishnah Berurah 445:10, Kaf Hachayim 445:18.
  5. ↑ Piskei Teshuvot 445:4, Mishna Berura 445:5. Kinyan Torah 2:86 quotes the Chazon Ish 118:3 that he reluctantly agrees that the modern toilet is similar to throwing it into the ocean.
  6. ↑ Mishna Berura 445:1.
  7. ↑ Minchat Yitzchak 4:56, Shevet Halevi 1:137.
  8. ↑ Piskei Teshuvot 445:7, Chelkat Yaakov 3:165
  9. ↑ Be'er Moshe 1:41; 3:74
  10. ↑ Halichot Shlomo 6:10, Piskei Teshuvot 445:1, Beer Moshe 5:122, Siddur Pesach Kihilchato page 173.
  11. ↑ http://www.torah.org/advanced/weekly-halacha/5757/metzorah.html
  12. ↑ Rav Schachter on OU Pre-Pesach Webcast 5771 between minutes 28:30 and 30:15. See Rabbi Mordechai Willig in Am Mordechai (Moadim) who defends the practice of those who burn it ealier.
  13. ↑ Piskei Teshuvot 445:3
  14. ↑ Mishna Berura 445:6 and Shaat Hatziyun 445:17.
  15. ↑ Shulchan Aruch 434:2
  16. ↑ Rama 434:2
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