Introduction
Dear
Friends:
I hope
this finds you well at this difficult time.
We at the
Bais HaVaad are pleased to present to you this next issue of the Business
Halacha Review. In this publication, we aim to provide an overview of essential
issues in day-to-day dinei mamonos—business halacha—one topic at a time.
In this
issue, we tackle mechiras chametz issues that pertain to businesses. But
first, a very brief history of mechiras chametz.
The
permanent sale of chametz to a non-Jew before Pesach in order to avoid violating
bal yeira’eh uval yimatzei is mentioned in the Mishnah.[1]
The Tosefta[2]
goes further and discusses selling and physically transferring chametz and then
repurchasing it after Pesach, and this method is codified by the Rambam[3]
and Shulchan Aruch.[4]
But mechiras chametz in its current form—where the chametz
remains on the seller’s premises and is repurchased after Pesach—dates only to
the 17th century CE, when decrees in European countries excluded Jews from many
occupations. This brought many Jews into the liquor business, where a
pre-Pesach fire sale of a producer’s entire inventory would mean financial
ruin.
The Bach[5]confronted this issue in 1630s Poland, where most Jewish commerce, as he
attests, was in liquor. He permitted a distiller to sell his supply to a
non-Jew—without physical transfer—and then buy it back after Yom Tov, provided
he also sold the warehouse and gave the buyer the key.
By the
early 19th century CE, this approach had spread from the liquor merchants to
encompass the general population, and rabbanim arranged mass sales on behalf of
those in their communities who had appointed them as shluchim. This was
initially controversial, as some poskim viewed the sale as an
ineffective ha’aramah. But rebuttals of the objections, and strong
affirmations of the practice, came from such luminaries as the Chasam Sofer,[6]
paving the way to its wide adoption. More recently, the Mishnah Berurah[7]
even ruled that one can obviate the need for bedikah in a hard-to-check
spot by selling that area and any chametz it contains.[8]
Still, some observe a chumra not to sell chametz gamur, i.e., foods that are
asur min HaTorah.
Please
feel free to contact us to obtain a recording of a symposium we held on
mechiras chametz for businesses.
May the Torah in these pages help you to have a chag kasher. May that, in turn, make it samayach as well. And may we soon see refu’os vishu’os for all Klal Yisrael.
Rabbi Nosson Kaiser
Editor in Chief
[1] פסחים כ”א ע”א
[2] פסחים פ”ב ה”ו
[3] הל’ חו”מ פ”ד ה”ו
[4] ‘או”ח סי’ תמ”ח סעיף ג
[5] ‘שם סעיף ב
[6] שו”ת או”ח קי”ג ויו”ד ש”י
[7] סי’ תל”ג ס”ק
כ”ג
[8] ומ”מ דנו הפוסקים אם צריך למכרו לפני שחל חיוב בדיקה באור לי”ד