Chametz which a Jew owned on Pesach: Difference between revisions

# Although biblically speaking, any "Jewish chometz" is permitted to be eaten as soon as Pesach is over, the Rabbanon made a decree that remains on the chometz forever.<ref>

==Post Pesach shopping==

|Many issuray d'rabbanon such as chalav akum, bishul akum, pas akum etc. one is permitted to benefit from as opposed to chometz sh'aver alav HaPesach where even ha'nah is prohibited</ref> one has to be somewhat restrained in where he does his post Pesach shopping. If one purchases all of his chometz products from a Jewish supermarket then one need not be concerned as one may assume that all of the chometz was sold over Pesach.<ref>

# The problem is that these stores are open throughout Pesach and no Rabbi will be able to convince them to cover up all their chometz sections and hold back sales for an entire week. This is highly impractical as well as financially detrimental to a store that has to service the entire population, gentile customers included. R' Moshe Feinstein zt"l,<ref>

|At the time the teshuva was written Waldbaum's was still owned by Julia Waldbaum, a Jewish woman</ref> after Pesach suggested the following:

It should be arranged with the owners of these stores to sell all of their chometz to a non-Jew prior to Pesach even though they will be doing business with that very same chometz. This results in a two fold advantage

## All the chometz, that was in the store prior to Pesach is not prohibited because of ''chometz sh'evar alav HaPesach ''(as it is halachically not owned by a Jew)

## The owner of the store is not transgressing the issur of owning chometz on Pesach (''b'al yira'eh ubal y'motzai''), which he ordinarily would have been violating countless times with all of the hundreds of chometz products that he ordinarily sells.

# R' Moshe mentions that should the store owner sell any of this chometz over Pesach (which a chain store open over Pesach will invariably end up doing) he would be stealing from the non-Jew. As the chometz in his store for all intents and purpose belongs to the non-Jew who he sold it to. Although stealing from a non-Jew is not permitted, it would be worthy to do such a thing as this way the kosher customers may purchase any item that they desire immediately following Pesach as it was "goyish chometz" over Pesach. Additionally the Jewish store owner will be able to avoid transgressing the prohibition of owning chometz over Pesach many hundreds, if not thousands of times.