Eliminating Matzah, through decreasing buying and attrition (to minimize discarding of food and wastage of money), begins roughly a month before Khag ha-Matzot.
The website for the Orthodox Union at www.orthodoxunion.org is helpful.
In your last message you mentioned grain products could you please specify what kind of grain products are prohibited during Pesakh and does this prohibition also include dairy products like yogurt, cheese and butter along with lentils, legumes and beans. What type of flour is used in making the Matsah bread could you please send me the receipy for the bread what are the ingredients required, is it made with whole wheat grain flour or fine flour, thank you, Shalom. DD, Mumbai (Bombay), India, 2000.04.04.
In Biblical Hebrew and usage, חמץ (khameitz) was defined as foods — not non-food products or animal food — that contained sour-dough starter. Sour-dough starter — leaven per se — was שאר (sә·or). Readers should investigate from a baker or bread what "sour-dough starter" is and how sour-dough starter and bread is made. Not even שאר, much less khameitz, was defined in terms of micro-organisms that might be found in non-food items. To extend either of these terms to non-food items never conceived in Biblical usage is adding to Torah. Further information is found in NHM note 16.6.1.
There are five species of grains considered to which khameitz applies: wheat, barley, spelt, rye, and oats. Extension of the prohibition to include rice, nuts, etc. is an Ashkenazi innovation not recognized by either Teimanim or Sepharadim. Therefore, millet, rice, beans, peas, lentils, corn and nuts are ok.
Foods containing any of these five species of grains, even in a list of ingredients (i.e., even in trace amounts — which produces many surprising inclusions), are prohibited even from being in one's possession or on one's property during the seven days of חג המצות (khag ha-matzot; the Pilgrimage [from which the Arabic and Islamic "haj" derives] of Unleavened Crackers). In practice, foods which might contain khameitz (i.e., traces of these five species of grain and which could, therefore, ferment producing khameitz if not handled according to halakhah for Pesakh) are permitted only if they include an Orthodox "Kosher for Pesakh" (not merely "kosher") symbol on the product — which indicates that the product has been monitored to ensure that leaven-producing fermentation hasn't been permitted to occur in that product.
The key to making Matzah isn't in the recipe. The key is in the handling of the worrisome grain from the time the grain is picked to the time it comes out of the oven, that, at every stage and all along the way, all of the requirements of halakhah regarding prevention of the formation of khameitz have been met. That is far too enormous an undertaking for most Orthodox Jews (including me), much less a novice. You simply cannot make Matzah without proper rabbinic training or rabbinic supervision.
Processed foods (canned, frozen, etc.) may have khameitz introduced into them in the form of preservatives, colorings, or whatever. Fresh / raw, unprocessed vegetables, outside of these five grains of course, don't have khameitz and are permitted. Dairy foods, unless khameitz has been introduced during processing, have nothing to do with khameitz and, therefore, aren't included in the prohibition of khameitz.
It comes as a shock to many that Torah doesn't merely say you cannot eat it, Torah commands that none be found on your property during חג המצות (not implying that you merely hide it).
Products from alcoholic beverages to even some non-foods such as lipstick or clothes starch can contain khameitz according to the modern 'micro-organism' definition, but certainly don't contain sour-dough starter or leavened bread inherent in the Biblical definitions. To further complicate the picture, even within the Orthodox community different Orthodox communities (particularly the Ashkәnazim versus Sәpharadim) have different definitions involving different levels of requirements.
Satisfying today's Orthodox rabbis, therefore, goes far beyond a meticulous checking of the ingredients on cans and packages of food. Only checking that one doesn't have in his or her possession or property any product on a very lengthy list (of items ranging from toothpaste to medicines to lipstick), approved by one's own rabbi (or his rabbinic organization), suffices.
Satisfying the Biblical mitzwah requires ridding one's entire property of all traces of שאר and khameitz. The rabbinic legal fiction of symbolically "selling" it to the goyim both adds (a dispensation) and diminishes (the requirements) of Torah. Being required to throw out all of one'sשאר and khameitz (rather than the rabbinic legal fiction of symbolically "buying" it back after חג המצות), it quickly becomes clear that it's financially advisable to begin using up such products well before חג המצות to minimize the financial loss incurred in throwing such things out.
Nәtzarim should follow the Teimani (Sәpharadi) guidelines, applying the Biblically halakhic definitions before the additions and diminutions were introduced to Torah. Since this doesn't agree with other Orthodox rabbinic standards, Orthodox rabbis aren't capable of recognizing the additions and dimunitions their predecessors have sometimes injected and won't agree that this conforms to Halakhah. Contrary to the misconstrusion that the consensus determines Halakhah (Halakhah states that consensus overides credentials, not logic), Torah explicitly states both that one mustn't follow the majority to wrong (Shәmot 23.2) and that one may not add to nor diminish from Torah (Dәvarim 13.1). Halakhah itself, as elucidated by Rambam, stipulates that the highest halakhic authority is logic — not consensus. Remember that the consensus worshipped the golden calf and has repeatedly strayed!
Opinions are so varied concerning the laws of khameitz that, unlike the rest of the year, during חג המצות there is virtually no sharing of meals between Teimanim, Sepharadim and Ashkenazim. Consequently, even though Nәtzarim are required to attend the local Orthodox Beit ha-K'neset, accomodation of other Orthodox Yәhudim during חג המצות reduces to not bringing items to Beit ha-K'neset, or to a Jewish home, that they consider אסור (asur; bound, prohibited, forbidden).
The list of products published by the Orthodox Union, even though they are predominantly Ashkenazi-oriented, is an excellent place to start. The Orthodox Union should, and I hope it does, include advice applicable to Sepharadim (which is the more similar to Teimanim). Without a local Orthodox rabbi — who is either Teimani or Sepharadi — this list is your only recourse. It's impossible for me to check an unlimited number of products from all over the world. That's what the Orthodox כשר לפסח (kasheir le-Pesakh; "kasheir for Pesakh") labels and local rabbis are for.
This necessarily means that students have no alternative but to make a transition into the legitimate Orthodox community if they are to satisfy the mitzwot.
For flour, "מצה (Matzah; unleavened cracker) meal" is just ground up Matzah (matzah cracker). So if you can find Matzah in your local grocery store, but cannot find Matzah "flour," just buy extra Matzah and grind up what you need for flour in a food processor.
Pesakh, while technically referring only to the Seider on the eve of the first day of the yom tov, is widely used to refer to khag ha-Matzot, the seven day pilgrimage festival of unleavened crackers. Both the first and seventh day are a special Shabat, in which melakhah is prohibited.
The second day of khag ha-Matzot, the day after the special Shabat of the first day of khag ha-Matzot (wa-Yiqra 23.11), is the khag of firstfruits of the barley harvest in which the omer was waved in the Beit ha-Miqdash. 50 days are counted from this waving of the omer to Shavu·ot ("weeks" — when the first sheaves of the wheat harvest were waved in the Beit K'neset).
© 2006, Yirmeyahu Ben-David, Paqid 16
The Netzarim
www.netzarim.co.il
Based on Shәmot 12.15, the ceremony of בדיקת חמץ takes place on the 13th of Firstmonth (or the 12th if the 13th falls on Sixthday of the week). It follows Arvit immediately after nightfall and before any other activity is undertaken.
Because the khameitz collected in this search will be burned the next morning, before beginning the search the al biur khameitz (concerning the burning of leaven) bәrakhah is recited consigning the khameitz found to the next morning's fire.
We make it a treasure hunt for the children. Since a bәrakhah must never be recited profanely (i.e. vainly), several pieces of khameitz — which can easily and cleanly be whisked into a saucer — are "planted" in several rooms for the children to find. However the "plants" should be counted, their locations noted, and accounted for so that none are forgotten. The degree of difficulty in hiding them should be tailored to the ability of the child or children to find them.
Since the בדיקת חמץ is carried out by the light of a wax candle (cf. Tzәphan•yâh′ 1.12), we darken the rooms, perhaps leaving a small lamp lit so no one stumbles, before beginning. The crumbs are generally whisked into a saucer (which must afterwards be 'koshered') using (a) chicken or duck feather(s). The khameitz is collected, accounted for, and put in a safe place until morning.
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