We're dealing here with פסח, and we know that פסח involves mainly two מצוות. One is a positive מצוה, and one is a negative מצוה. Within these two מצוות themselves, we have more מצוות, specific מצוות within the two. But the general two מצוות are the prohibition of חמץ and the מצוה of eating מצה. Concerning the prohibition of חמץ, we find that the איסור, the prohibition of חמץ, is worse than any other איסור and any other prohibition in the whole תורה. Not only because the prohibition of חמץ is כרת, it's called a חיוב כרת, which means that the penalty that the תורה, that השם, that God would give for eating חמץ on פסח is stricter than eating many other things that we are not allowed to eat, like for instance, eating חזיר, eating pork. The punishment that the תורה speaks about is not as strict as the punishment for eating חמץ on פסח. For eating חזיר, it's only a לאו we call it, which is only a negative commandment, while for eating חמץ, it's כרת. כרת means השם will make the person die prematurely. Now, many of these actual punishments don't apply nowadays, for whatever reasons the ספרים talk about, but it just shows what level of prohibition it is. So that's number one. But in that, because of that, חמץ wouldn't be the worst, because there are other things also which have the same punishment of כרת. But חמץ is worse because there is a certain level of prohibition which חמץ has which others don't have. And let me explain. There are certain things that you're not allowed to eat in the תורה. Many things we know, keep כשר, we don't eat certain things. But then many of the things, even though you can't eat it, but they're מותר בהנאה, which means you're allowed to use them, you're allowed to derive benefit from them. חמץ you are not allowed to derive benefit. On פסח, it's אסור בהנאה. But again, that is not one, that is not something that is only by חמץ, because there are other things which you also cannot derive benefit from, which is, for instance, בשר בחלב. If you mix milk and meat together, it is also forbidden בהנאה, which means not only you can't eat it, you can't derive any benefit. There is something in חמץ that no other איסור has, no other איסור, except one which is not really an איסור אכילה, not something that you can't eat, and that is בל יראה ובל ימצא. Not only can't you eat חמץ, not only can't you derive benefit from חמץ, you can't own חמץ, that on פסח a Jew is not allowed to own חמץ. That's one thing. And that's where all the דינים of cleaning the house comes in, and all the דינים of searching for חמץ and burning חמץ, it's all because we are not allowed to have חמץ in our house. You're not allowed to own חמץ on פסח. Then there's another thing with which חמץ on פסח is stricter than everything else. We know that everything else is בטל בשישים. That means that if something which is forbidden falls into 60 times as much of כשר, then it is nullified, it is בטל. Let's say if you have some non-כשר liquid that is mixed into a pot, and the pot has 60 times as much as this non-כשר liquid has, then you are allowed to eat it. It's called בטל בשישים. חמץ בפסח is not בטל בשישים. It doesn't become nullified. חמץ on פסח is אסור, we call it במשהו. במשהו even a small drop of חמץ that falls into a thousand, 10,000 times as much, the whole thing is forbidden. And this is another reason, or the main reason, why we are so careful with חמץ on פסח. As we know that concerning other ענינים, דינים of כשרות, and some people are very מהדר, they're very careful and extra careful, but then there are certain things which go under the category of, I hate to say this, משוגעת, because there is a limit of what a person is supposed to do, how far a person can be careful. Other things just go out of the limits and it's nothing, it has no halachic value. But when it comes to פסח, there is no such thing, because פסח is אסור במשהו, since חמץ is forbidden, even a small, small, tiny drop, and that's something that as careful as one is, you'll never be careful enough. Because a small drop, you never know, it could get mixed in, and that's why we, we do things on פסח and concerning פסח that we don't do concerning anything else throughout the whole year.

And let's just maybe go through some of the הלכות, some of the things that we do which is because of this איסור of משהו. Just, I'm picking the smallest example, I'm starting from the back, but I'm not going to go in a special order, just whatever, you know, comes to my mind as far as the ענין of פסח. For instance, when it comes to buying fruits and vegetables and things like that, we have a custom, I wouldn't say it's הלכה, על פי הלכה you don't have to suspect, that we don't eat anything on פסח that cannot be peeled. And the reason is, number one, because they spray the fruit, and you don't know what the ingredients of the spray are. Then also, since the fruits and vegetables are handled by people, you never know what these people had in their hand. In other words, it wasn't watched. In order to be sure that there is not even a משהו חמץ, it has to be watched. And therefore, what we do is we only eat fruits and vegetables that could be peeled, and then when we peel it, we know that the inside never touched חמץ and had no contact with חמץ. Because of that, we go even a step further. We have a special knife that we use specifically for peeling fruits on פסח, and we don't use that knife for anything else. And the reason is because since that knife did touch the peel, why should we use the same knife that touch other food? Now, when you peel the apple, that same knife touches the inside of the peel, which touches the apple. True, but there's nothing we can do about it. So therefore, we use it, but at least what we don't have to do, we shouldn't. So we take the knife and we keep it only for that. For that same reason, we only we use a special pot for cooking eggs, because when we cook eggs, we cook them with the shell. Now, considering the eggs, there are some people who have who try to buy not washed eggs, unwashed eggs for פסח. And the reason is because they claim when they wash the eggs, they wash it with alcohol. And therefore, the outside of the egg has alcohol, and alcohol is very likely to be חמץ. On the other hand, some people say that better to buy the washed eggs, because the unwashed eggs are dirty and they lay around there in the dirt next to the chickens, which has חמץ in it, so better to buy washed eggs. And therefore, some will do this, some do that. Whichever way you do, it's always worthwhile, the right thing to do, to wash the eggs before you put them in the pot. But even then, we have a special pot in which we cook the eggs, because we cook them with the peel, so we shouldn't with the shell, so we shouldn't have to cook this in other things. This is just one example of how careful we are when it comes to פסח, even though things are not this is not really that important. When it comes to the lettuce that we have to eat by the סדר, we have no choice, because we have to eat the lettuce. So therefore, first it's worthwhile to take off the outside leaves for that reason, the inside leaves hopefully was not sprayed, second of all, people didn't touch it, and even then, we wash it and wash it and wash it. We have to wash it and check it anyway for the bugs, but in the meantime we check it for and we wash it always, so we shouldn't be any חשש, anything of חמץ. The whole idea of געבראקס, because you notice I'm not going to the most important things, I'm just going without an order, the whole idea of people who are careful with געבראקס is based on that. Now, we all know what געבראקס is. געבראקס they call in Hebrew שרויה. שרויה, really the word שרויה means soaked. Any מצה that comes in contact with water, we don't eat on פסח. And when we say we, it's basically חסידים. ליובאוויטש is extra, extra careful in not eating געבראקס, to the extreme, but generally speaking, most חסידים, and maybe all חסידים, are careful not to eat געבראקס. I don't know if they go to the extreme as we do, but they still are very careful. Not חסידים, there are some that are careful, some that are not. What's the idea of געבראקס? Just to give a small understanding: The idea of געבראקס is, when they bake the מצה, because we are very careful that everything should go very, very fast, because we don't want the dough to lay around, so when they knead the dough, and when they roll the dough, they go very, very fast. So many times they don't, when they knead the dough, the not all of the flour gets kneaded into the dough. And what happens is, sometimes there is flour that stays not mixed with the water. So when you bake the מצה, sometimes you could have a little bit of flour on the outside. As a matter of fact, just a day ago someone called me. He was giving out מצות on מבצעים, and the two מצות he had in the box, he opened them up, he asked me what should he do, those two מצות were full of flour on the outside, because it wasn't That just happened to be that that batch had flour. Now, if you have flour, and you put the flour into the water, then the water and flour together, and if you leave it over a short, short period, it becomes, חס ושלום, חמץ. And therefore we're very careful that the מצה should not come in contact with water at all. Usually, we don't see flour on the outside, but it's possible to be a tiny drop. And this is all based on the fact that חמץ, even במשהו, since even a tiny drop is mixed in is a problem, therefore we are very careful, even though it's only a very small, tiny drop. So this is just to show how far we go. There are certain things that people don't eat on פסח which has no source, but nevertheless, being that it started with something, so we're so careful on פסח, we go to the level of משוגעת that we don't eat that. For instance, garlic. The custom is that people don't eat we don't eat garlic on פסח. Now what does garlic have to do with חמץ? Nothing. גארנישט מיט גארנישט, as we say, nothing. But where did it come From, it used to be when the גוים sold garlic in the אלטער שטעטל years ago, they would dry the garlic over their ovens. And their ovens, they would cook, bake bread, cook לאקשן, I don't know what they would do, but it's חמץ. And therefore, they would, the garlic would have the steam of חמץ. And because of that, it stayed a custom. And therefore, many people don't, and people stick to the custom. For instance, not to eat מילכיגס on פסח. There is no source, there is no reason. There is a שאלה if the, if the animals were fed חמץ during פסח, then there is a שאלה on the milk. Nowadays, no such thing. All the milk that we get on פסח was all milked before פסח. And the חלב ישראל companies, they make sure for a month before פסח they don't feed them חמץ. There is no שאלות. But Europe, אמאליגע יארן, Russia, נישט געגעסן קיין מילכיגס because they couldn't get milk, so it's something people don't eat now. Tell you the truth, the רבי ate מילכיגס on פסח. But there are many people who don't eat מילכיגס on פסח. But there is no need, and I'm not saying you should do it. See, these are none of the things I'm trying to say, \"Do that.\" I'm just bringing out the point. There is another reason why they didn't eat מילכיגס on פסח, because in order to eat מילכיגס, they had to have two sets of dishes. Who had money to buy an extra set of dishes for פסח? And קוים קוים they had money to buy two sets of dishes for the year, so they didn't have מילכיגס, that's it! But anyway, nevertheless, some people do that. So, this is all again to show that when it comes to פסח, we are careful to the extra, to the extreme. But concerning געבראקס, I am stressing, it is our מנהג and we're very careful. We're careful so much so that we try, not we try, our מנהג is that we don't have any מצה uncovered anywhere during, on the table, anywhere. Because we never know, when you eat there could be sometimes water will spritz and this, so we are very careful not to have it. The only time we do is on אחרון של פסח.

Being that חמץ on פסח is forbidden to be eaten, so it is not less, certainly, than any other forbidden food. When a כלי, when a vessel absorbs the taste of forbidden food, then that vessel cannot be used. Let's say if a vessel gets טרייף, how does a כלי get טרייף? How does a pot get טרייף? By mistake, you took a מילכיגע pot and you put פליישיגס in it, that's how it gets טרייף. So, what's the problem? You can't use that pot again. Why can't you use it? Because now in the walls of the pot, you have, and absorbed in the walls, you have a taste of non-kosher food. When you will use this pot later on to cook kosher food, then every time you cook, some of the taste that's in the walls of the pot comes out into the food that you cook. So, if the pot absorbed טרייף, now you're going to cook kosher food, the טרייף taste of that pot is going to go into the kosher. The same is concerning חמץ. So, therefore, we cannot use our regular dishes of that we use, dishes or pots or pans, anything that we use throughout the year, and we have to use new dishes because they shouldn't have anything absorbed inside. But there is another thing that we're able to do, and that is kasher. If a person has a כלי that absorbed טרייף, we have a way of kashering. Now, there are things that we cannot kasher, and then there are things that you have to kasher in different ways. And that's what I think we're going to discuss for a few moments now, the general ideas of how you kasher כלים, and which כלים you can't kasher. Now, we all know that earthenware, כלי חרס, cannot be kashered. So that anybody who has a dish, like a plate, which is made of חרס, of earthenware, cannot be kashered, not for פסח and not for all year round. So, that you have to put away, and if it's during the year, if it got טרייף, that's it. But for פסח, we're talking about פסח now, these כלים you have to put away, you can't kasher it. Glass vessels can be kashered throughout the year if it became טרייף. Actually, when it comes to glass, there are three opinions, generally. One opinion is that glass doesn't have to be kashered, it can't become טרייף. Generally, the ספרדים hold like that. Then there is an opinion that not only that you have to kasher, you can't kasher it! Opposite extreme. One opinion is the first one that you don't have to, the other extreme is that you can't. And then there's a middle-of-the-way opinion that it's like any other thing, you could kasher it. So, we accept that middle opinion, that you could kasher, you have to kasher it, but and you could. But for פסח, we are מחמיר, and הלכה, the רמ״א says that we should not kasher glass. So, we don't kasher glass for פסח. So, again, כלי חרס, earthenware, we don't kasher, glass we don't kasher. Plastic, plastic throughout the year, we are able to kasher. Yes, plastic, but it's advisable whenever we kasher plastic, it should be done three times. But for פסח, we don't kasher plastic. So, anything that's plastic, you cannot kasher. What can we kasher? We kasher metal, we could kasher wood, we could kasher stone. The main thing that's usually kashered is metal. Now, how do you kasher metal, which is a metal pot or other vessels which are made of metal? Now, there are basically two forms of kashering, we all know. One is called הגעלה, and one is called ליבון. הגעלה means with hot water, ליבון is with fire. What does it depend on? It depends on the usage of the vessel throughout the year, which means how the vessel absorbed the חמץ. And the same would apply throughout the year, how the vessel absorbed the non-kosher taste, but we're again talking about פסח. A vessel that absorbed the taste of חמץ through hot water, you have to kasher with hot water. The vessel that absorbed the taste through heat without liquid, which is through baking for instance, you cannot kasher with hot water. You have to kasher with fire. The level of kashering with fire is a stronger level than with hot water, and therefore anything that you have to kasher with hot water, you are allowed to kasher with fire if you want. But things which you have to kasher with fire, you cannot kasher with hot water. Now when we get to the water, I'll explain the דין, how to do it, I'm just bringing the general ideas. When it comes to kashering with hot water, not everything is the same. Depends on the level of how it absorbed the חמץ through hot water. Certain vessels are put on the fire. Let's say a pot that you usually cook לאקשן in, so it absorbed the חמץ. לאקשן is noodles are pure חמץ. This is ממש חמץ as חמץ could get. This is like bread. So that pot absorbed the חמץ through hot water, which is a כלי ראשון. כלי ראשון means the vessel that is actually over the fire, being cooked, is called the first vessel. When we take from a vessel that's over the fire, and we pour into another vessel, the second one is called a כלי שני. When we take from that and pour it into another one, that's called a כלי שלישי, a third one. So we have like this: we have many levels here. We have a level of the first level as it's over the fire. Then we have a כלי ראשון which is not over the fire. Then we have what we call an עירוי כלי ראשון. When we pour from the vessel, the first vessel, onto something, if the חמץ came in contact at the time you poured, so it's not the level of the first כלי, but it's not the level of the second either, because it got חמץ'דיק before. Let's say there was bread on a plate and you poured hot water over it, so it got חמץ'דיק through the level of heat not from a second vessel. See, that would be if you take hot water let's say, and you pour it into a plate, and then you drop חמץ in, so then the חמץ was there in a level of a כלי שני. But here it wasn't like that. Here it got חמץ'דיק when you poured, that's called an עירוי כלי ראשון, a pouring of a כלי ראשון. So here again, we have on the fire, then we have the first כלי if it's not on the fire, then we have the pouring of a כלי ראשון, then you have when it came into the second it's a כלי שני, and then when you pour from that, it's an עירוי כלי שני, etc., etc. The form of kashering in everything depends on how it became טרף. If something became טרף, or in this case חמץ'דיק, in a כלי ראשון, the only way you could kasher it is by using water of a כלי ראשון. If something became חמץ'דיק by an עירוי כלי ראשון, you could kasher it by an עירוי כלי, by pouring. So let's get down to business to be more practical, not the philosophy of it. So let's say you have a pot which is used over the fire, and you want to kasher it, it's a חמץ'דיק pot and you want to kasher it, what is the procedure? The procedure is, first and foremost, before anything, it has to be clean, because if there's any dirt on it, the kashering is not valid. It can't be rusty; if there's any rust on it, it's not valid. If there are any cracks in it, you have to clean it, and sometimes there are cracks you can't clean, you can't kasher that, unless, as I'll say later. So let's say you have a pot, you cleaned it and everything is fine, and it's a pot that became חמץ'דיק in the highest degree, of water, כלי ראשון. So what you could do with it is, you boil up another pot of hot water, a פסח'דיק pot, and take this pot, if it's a smaller one, and put it in. The moment you immerse it into the hot water, that's a כלי ראשון, then this pot becomes פסח'דיק. All you do, you put it in, make sure every area of it becomes immersed in the hot water, then you take it out, and you rinse it with cold water right away, that's our custom. If it's a big pot that you cannot immerse into another pot, so you fill it up with water, let it boil. When it boils, and it starts bubbling, it's kashered. The problem is, what's about the top, the rim? So here there are many things you could do. Or you could take a hot stone, a hot stone, and throw it in, and that'll make it overflow. Now why do you need a hot stone, to just throw in a stone? 'Cause if you throw in a stone, it'll cool off the water, and it has to כשר it when the water is boiling, bubbling. So if the stone is hot, it'll overflow. Or there's another way: you make like a rim of cement around it on the outside, and let the water fill it up till higher and the water will overflow. Whichever way, but that's the way to do it. If you have silverware that you want to כשר, that's the easiest. Just boil up a pot of water, and in while it's boiling, just put it in. You could put a lot of things at the same time, but make sure that they're not touching each other because then there is a space where the hot water doesn't go through. So the easiest thing is to just throw them in one by one. So that's the way to כשר it. Now, certain things, you don't have to do that if it became חמצדיק not by a כלי ראשון. Let's say a plate, obviously not a חרס, not an earthenware plate, a metal plate. Now, plate is never a כלי ראשון. You don't put that on the fire. So how is a plate חמצדיק? Because you take from the pot and you pour it. Let's say, so you take the soup which has לאקשן in it, and you pour it, so it became חמצדיק. To כשר that plate, you could כשר it by pouring hot water over it from a כלי ראשון, because it became חמצדיק by pouring hot water, an עירוי כלי ראשון. But we have to remember that if it became חמצדיק because a solid piece of חמץ fell on it from the first pot, it has a הלכה of a כלי ראשון. In other words, if you have a plate where you put a piece of קוגל, hot קוגל, לאקשן קוגל, which is חמץ, and it came out of the pot from the oven, and you put it onto the plate, that plate became חמצדיק not through a כלי שני. It sounds like it's a כלי שני, second one because it was poured from the first. But the whole difference of the first and the second is only liquids. A solid, when it falls, has a דין of a כלי ראשון. And why am I stressing it? Because this is important for the sink. Okay, now let's get back to the sink, even though I want to later go back to the ליבון, to the what, the fire, but this is important for the sink. We're talking about כשר'ינג the sink or כשר'ינג the countertop. Now if the countertop is made of Formica, or any other form of plastic, we can't כשר it. So you just cover it as we will get a chance to talk about. But if it's made of aluminum or made of metal, you could כשר it. Now what's the way to כשר it? Now at first glance, one would think, how did the sink or the countertop become חמצדיק? It wasn't put on the fire. It's not a כלי ראשון. It's impossible for the countertop or the sink to be a כלי ראשון. But that's what I'm trying to say, it's not so. Many times חמץ from the pot will fall on this countertop, and it will be a דבר גוש, a solid. Therefore, the countertop very possible is חמצדיק from that כלי ראשון. So you'll have to כשר it with a כלי ראשון. How could you have a top of a counter or a sink be a כלי ראשון? כלי ראשון is only if you boil it on the fire. How could you have it to be a כלי ראשון? So there is a way to do it. The way to do it is that you boil up water. Now the water in the טשייניק, or in the the kettle, or whatever, is a כלי ראשון. When you're going to pour it, it'll come down here, it'll be an עירוי כלי ראשון, it won't be a כלי ראשון anymore. What you do is, you take, prepare a hot stone, but nowadays we don't need a hot stone, an iron. Take an iron that you iron your clothes. Have it plugged in, just be careful, or and then unplug it, I guess, I don't know, make sure it doesn't you don't get no electric shock or something. So what you do is you pour the hot water. Now if you pour the hot water just like that, it's a problem, because that hot water is only an עירוי, pouring of a כלי ראשון. You have to elevate it to a level of being boiling itself. So as soon as you pour, you go with the iron. Now that iron, which is hot, will bring that back to the level of a כלי ראשון, and you'll have to do it on every area. Let's say this area, you pour hot water, and you just go through. You give another pour, go through, another pour, go through. Now this could only be done, obviously, on a flat surface, metal, only on metal, or stone, or stone, or wood. On stone also, on stone also. But the thing is, this could only be done on a flat surface. So it could be done on the countertop if it's aluminum or stone, it could be done on the bottom of the sink, but it cannot be done on the sides. So what do you do concerning the sides? So concerning the sides, there is something which is equivalent to הגעלה. We're calling this הגעלה, this כלי ראשון כשר'ינג is called הגעלה. There is something which is equivalent to הגעלה, and that is called a ליבון קל. Now let's get back to the word ליבון. The word ליבון means to burn out with fire. Like I said before, those things that became חמצדיק through heat without liquid, the only way to כשר it is with fire. For instance, for instance, a cookie sheet, you put cookies on it and you bake it. Now, I don't advise anybody to take a חמץ'דיקע cookie sheet to use it for פסח, but we're just talking in theory, let's say became חמץ'דיק or something. You would have to take fire, a torch, and go through, and every little spot has to become red hot. No matter how long that could take, you have to hold it there till it becomes red hot. That's the only way of kashering something that absorbed חמץ without liquid. But then there is another thing called a ליבון קל, a small, a miniature level of ליבון, that you hold it on the place, on the metal, just enough that if you would touch a tissue to it, a tissue to it, it would start burning. And that's not long. And that, the ליבון קל is equivalent to the hot water of the first level, the first degree. So therefore, what you would do is the countertop, if it's aluminum, you do with the iron. The bottom part of the sink, you can do with iron. And then the walls, you would go through with that torch, make sure not to touch anything that's plastic because you can burn it, and you go through with the torch, and you don't have to have a ליבון גמור, not a real ליבון, ליבון קל, and you know one place you try and put see how long you have to hold in order to get that, it's not long. And then that same amount of time, just keep on going, hold it and then keep on going, and you go through the whole place, and that's how you kasher it. I just want to mention that many of the new sinks, aluminum sinks, have a coating of cement on the bottom on the outside, meaning if you look under the sink, you'll see it. If you'll do this, you'll probably crack the cement. Now, all the cement does, it stops the the sweating that comes, I don't know whatever you call it, the the the the moisture that comes on the other side, so if you have the cement there, it doesn't do it. Now, not always, it could do it, so you've got to be careful. You see if you want to do it. I'll tell you the truth, in my house when we made our sinks, we specially made it from aluminum just in case you have to kasher it, and I never kashered anyway for פסח. We put in a complete insert, that's the easiest way. But that's the only reason, because it's a new sink and I don't want to break it, but the best way would be if you kasher it. Concerning the faucet, now the the thing that you do is you take off that bottom, that part that that you take off, you change it. And the rest, you should pour hot water over it, at least it'll be an עירוי כלי ראשון, which is the best you could do. And then the best thing would be if you cover it with with aluminum foil thing, and the same thing with the handles. We get to the stove, which is all based on the same philosophy of how you kasher. Now, the best thing is obviously if you have a new stovetop or things like that, but otherwise, if you have an electric stove, then you have the electric coils, then they kasher themselves. You just put them on and they get kashered, they're red. Around it, so you have to cover it. And the oven the oven, the only way to kasher an oven is with a torch, which is a very big job, it's very hard if you do if you kasher it. The best way to do it is first you heat it up and it gets very hot, so then it makes it much faster, and then you put your hands in, חס ושלום, you burn your hands, you've got to have a glove. Self-cleaning oven is okay. Self-cleaning oven goes up to 900°, you just put it on. The only thing is you have to remember that there are parts in a self-cleaning oven that does not get that hot, which are the rim and the place of that you have to cover. The door gets very hot, but the glass in the door, so if you're able to open up that little glass, that window, and take the glass and switch it around, that's good. If not, just cover it. Cover it with tin foil around the rim and cover with tin foil that that glass, because there's no other because it doesn't touch it. But if it's not a self-cleaning oven, even if it's a continuous cleaning oven, that doesn't help. Microwave, during the year there are ways to kasher it, for פסח, it's better not to kasher a microwave oven at all. If a person has no choice or whatever, there are ways. You put in a cup of water and you let it let it steam up, and you would be kashering it with steam. If there'll be more questions concerning the kashering, we'll get to it. I just want to get to a little other subject in this line.

When we talk about חמץ on פסח, there's another thing, which is concerning which things are allowed to be eaten if you have to, let's say medication, let's use that, or let's say makeup and things like that, deodorant. The truth is nowadays, a lot of things have הכשרים, so there's no need to go, you know, to, but I'll just we'll go into the general rules. The general rule is like this: Any חמץ that is נפסל מאכילת כלב before פסח, that cannot be eaten by a dog before פסח, is allowed on פסח. It's actually allowed on פסח. Any חמץ that be- came נפסל means ruined, so much ruined that not even a dog would eat it, not even a dog could eat it, that חמץ is permitted on פסח. Now when we say permitted, the question is permitted to do what? It's certainly permitted to make use of, to derive benefit. The question is, is it also permitted permitted to be eaten? Well, who would want to eat it? But let's say someone eats it. Yeah, but let's say a person does decide to eat it. There is an opinion, which is the רא״ש, and he says that if a person will decide to eat it, then what he is doing is he's elevating the status of that object to become food, and therefore automatically it is forbidden. So then therefore he says you're not allowed to eat it. And therefore, please don't eat any soap. So anyway, getting back to the point. But concerning deriving benefit, if it's נפסל מאכילת כלב, if it cannot be eaten, it is allowed. And therefore, anything which is definitely נפסל מאכילת כלב before פסח, like I said, a stick of soap, a bar of soap, or a stick deodorant, a stick deodorant, all these hard things, nail polish, nail polish remover, things like that, in truth, can be used on פסח. Now, if someone doesn't want to use it because, I could understand, but the הלכה, they're allowed to use. Perfume, which has alcohol in it, and many of the alcohol is חמץ, cannot be used. Even though some might say it's נפסל מאכילת כלב, but it's not so. There is an opinion that says that if, even though now you can't eat it, but if there is a small change you could make and it'll become fit to be eaten, then you can't use it. And they say in perfume, if you put in a little bit of sugar or things, you could eat. They say in the time of the Prohibition in the United States, when they couldn't buy liquor, they drank perfume. What they would do is they would put a little bit of sugar in it, and they would eat it. So therefore, perfume should not be used unless you have a הכשר, which means it should be פסחדיק, it means that the alcohol in it is not חמץ, cuz there are synthetic alcohol which is not חמץ, but we have to be sure. And things like that. Liquid deodorant, things like that, should not be used. But the stick, which is definitely something that cannot be changed, that can be used because that's נפסל מאכילת כלב. There are certain things which are called חמץ נוקשה. חמץ נוקשה means things which are hard to eat, you eat it with difficulty, but it could be eaten, a dog would eat it. That is forbidden on פסח. Not only forbidden on פסח, you have to put it away. Some hold that egg מצה would fall into that category, so some hold that you're not allowed to eat egg מצה on פסח. Therefore, in הלכה, egg מצה it says could only be eaten by a person who's sick or old that has no choice, because then we are lenient, but like this, we don't have egg מצה on פסח. You have to be very careful. Now, some of the stores sell chocolate-covered egg מצה and things like that, that cannot be eaten. And even though they have a sign on it where it says that it's only eaten by an old by a person who's sick, but what they do is they put the sign in Hebrew, so no one knows what it means. But really that you have to be very careful when it comes to this. There are a few small things I wanted to mention before I finish, which are just good to remember. The women who wear the rings, or take off the ring and don't wear it on פסח, the rings are 100% חמצדיק. You wash your dishes with it, you hold everything, you knead the dough with it, and you do everything, the rings are חמץ. Now, you could כשר the rings. That's an easy thing to do. I want to mention one point that I didn't mention before, which I just realized now. When you כשר any כלי, you have to wait 24 hours from when it was used. So anything that we're talking about before, you have to wait 20, if it's with water, if it's with with fire, then you don't have to wait, but with water. So what you should do is take off the ring, don't wear it, clean it, don't wear it for 24 hours, and then dip it into boiling water. And then the ring is a כשר לפסחדיק ring, and you could wear it. The same thing is with the false teeth. False teeth are a vessel. It's not your own teeth which doesn't absorb חמץ, and therefore, there's a problem. So you have to כשר it. Now, many times the dentures, if you put them into boiling water, they will get ruined. But you don't have to put them into a כלי ראשון, because the mouth where the teeth became חמצדיק were never like כלי ראשון over the fire. Some of the kids, they used to tease that they say you have to כשר your mouth with the torch for פסח. So what you have to do is also for 24 hours not to use it for חמץ, and then at least dip it into a כלי שני. If possible, כלי שני which means water from a teapot pour it into the cup, and then you dip it into the cup. If possible, with an עירוי כלי ראשון, which is also possible, then it would be even better. But if not, a person can't כשר his teeth, then you cannot eat anything that's sharp on פסח, and don't eat any horseradish for מרור, and בכלל things which are very hot is a problem because of teeth. are חמצדיק, but if it's not hot, so there is no problem, because if it's cold, there is no problem, but these are things that you have to remember. Just to mention a few, the table that we eat on, the dining room table is חמצדיק. Why? Because you put חמצדיק things on it. Many times things spill over. Just from the plate on the outside of the plate doesn't become חמצדיק, but you never know. During the year things spill over, it becomes חמצדיק. And now so what you do is you have to cover it. Not enough to cover it with a tablecloth. You should cover it with a board or cover it with something. So there should be a separation. There should be like another כלי in between your כלים and that כלי. The counter tops if you don't כשר, because if it's most cases they're formica and you can't כשר it, you have to cover it. Now it's not advisable to cover it with aluminum foil because that tears and it's not unless you know, put five layers down. The best thing is to put a big buy like a plastic. Someone suggested in aluminum, linoleum. You know they sell linoleum in the stores. You just cut buy it, cut it, and you just put it down. You buy it and or put down a piece of board or things like that. The walls should also be covered not with something like that, but at least with silver foil because the כלים or things that you put there touch the walls and the wall can be חמצדיק. The top over the stove Over the stove is you have the what the hood or whatever they're called, you have the steam of the חמץ that you cook all year round go up. And steam brings along חמץ. So it's חמצדיק. Now what happens on פסח you're cooking your שמאקעדיק soup and then the steam goes up and sometimes it drips down. And the steam connects. So you got חמץ coming down from there, so you got to at least cover it. You don't have to do anything more. You cover it with silver foil, that's enough, because it doesn't tear, no one touches it or anything, but at least you've covered. The fridge you don't have to כשר the fridge, because it's all cold, but you have to clean it and make sure, and you have to cover it with as much as you're able to. I tell you what the we once tried to cover the racks and the walls with silver foil and the fridge didn't work. Don't do it. It ruins it ruins the circulation of the air and it won't work. So you what you do is you could cover the racks and make sure to make holes. Don't cover the walls. A little bit maybe the the in the door you have the the shelves on the door, that you could cover with things that as much as you can. But the side of the wall it won't work. The fridge just won't won't The circulation won't go and it won't work and then you'll you'll ruin your food. You won't have good food for פסח. But otherwise more than that that you don't really have to do. Now, other things preparing the house for פסח, we all know. You just have to clean the house and בדיקת חמץ you have to do. The בדיקת חמץ the night before פסח. If a person leaves town, then you have to do בדיקת חמץ the night before. If you sell your whole house in the שטר מכירה, the right thing to do is to leave one area that you didn't sell, clean it and be בודק חמץ. And be בודק חמץ with a candle the night before you leave, without a ברכה unless it's the night of בדיקת חמץ. Anytime you do בדיקת חמץ and it's not the night of בדיקת חמץ, you do it without a ברכה. If a person comes to a hotel on פסח חול המועד, he goes to Disney World when you move into the hotel, you have to be בודק חמץ before you go in on פסח, because you're not allowed to live in a room that was not searched, checked for חמץ. Now you probably won't find anything, but you cannot be there without searching for חמץ. It makes heart hard this time of the year to go. This is basically the general ideas of of חמץ. Like I said before that I just want to spend 5 minutes just to explain and everyone knows this, there's an inner meaning of what חמץ is. We find, I said in the beginning, that there is nothing else in the תורה that has forbidden as חמץ as far as not owning it and not being allowed and even a drop is אסור. There is one more thing that is similar, which we find. And that is עבודה זרה. Anything is connected to idols. It says in the פסוק, ולא ידבק בידך מאומה, you should have nothing you shouldn't own it. And it says the פסוק that you have to destroy it. Just like חמץ there is a מצוה of תשביתו, you have to destroy, you have to destroy it. And it says, if anything belonging to idols gets mixed into any other food, it's אסור במשהו, even a drop. It's not בטל בששים. So we do see the connection between חמץ and עבודה זרה. It says, what's the idea of חמץ? Why is חמץ forbidden? חמץ is because it rises. חמץ shows for גאוה, it says, for ישות, for a person's arrogance, a person's ego. And that's עבודה זרה. עבודה זרה means that you believe in the something other than השם. A person is a בעל גאוה, that means he believes in himself. And the moment you believe in something other than השם, that's forbidden. And that's forbidden במשהו, even a drop of it is no good. We actually see the difference in חמץ and מצה is only a drop. Both words have a מ and a צ. The third letter, one has a ח, one has a ה. ח and ה look exactly alike. The difference in a ח and a ה is one drop. That little drop, because the difference And the truth is the difference in חמץ and מצה is one drop. All you need is that dough to go over the line for one second, then we have חמץ. So the difference חמץ and מצה is a משהו. And by the way, that's why the greatest הידור that we have to try to have, the greatest carefulness is in the מצה. Because the closest thing that we have on פסח to חמץ is the מצה. It's the complete opposite, but it's the closest. And that's why we have to get מצה should be the most מהודרדיקע מצה. And it's כדאי to have round מצה, כדאי to have machine מצה, as much as hand מצה, excuse me machine מצה, hand מצה, because even though machine מצה some people say is very good and fine, we're not saying, some people say it's not good, we're not to get into it, but one thing I always say and I could say it again, משה רבינו definitely ate hand מצה. And it was good enough for him, it's good enough for me. Now some will say maybe machine מצה is even better, fine, but hand מצה is definitely good. For משה רבינו it was good and for all the צדיקים till 150 years ago it was good, it's good for me too. Now, and machine מצה some people claim that it's not so. But anyway, getting back to the point, so חמץ and מצה, מצה you have to be careful because it's so little. Why? Because that souls for ישות, for גאווה. And the thing is that when a person starts thinking of his own ego, then it could lead the person to the worst. And that's why חמץ is אסור במשהו. And that's the lesson that we're supposed to take, and that's what it is. And that's why it says that eating מצה on פסח, it says in the זוהר is מיכלא דמהימנותא, is bread of אמונה. It's bread of faith. Now, we never heard of eating faith. Have you heard of eating faith? Faith is something in the brain. But it says yes, there is one type of food throughout the year that if you eat it, it gives you faith. And it says faith is sometimes something that's not internalized. Famous גמרא, גנבא אפום מחתרתא רחמנא קריא, a גנב goes to steal, he דאוונס to השם to give him success. Now if this guy believes in השם, how come he steals? He believes in השם because he's דאוונינג to Him. The answer is, חסידות says אמונה is מקיף. He believes, but not it's not really part of him that it should stop him from doing what he does. So what we need is that אמונה should become internalized, and that could happen through eating מצה. Now I always say this, if sometime during the year someone gets up and has some kind of doubts in his mind in things of אמונה, and he wonders where did this come from? I'll tell you where it came from. It's from the מצה that he ate on פסח. Probably מצה wasn't so good. He didn't get the best מהודרדיקע מצה, and that's why six months down the line, you never know, you could have ספיקות in אמונה because of the מצה. Plus it says מצה is called in the זוהר מיכלא דאסוותא, it's food of cure, medicine. מצה is medicine, it says in the זוהר. If you eat מצה, it gives you a cure. There were צדיקים that used to give people during the year leftovers of their מצה from פסח as a medicine, because מצה, see we can't do that because מצה is only on פסח it's a cure, not during the year, but the צדיקים would give שריים. But the idea is it gives a person a cure. They even tell the story that once someone brought the צמח צדק a bottle of slivovitz, so פסחדיקע משקה, cuz it's not חמץ. But we have a מנהג that we don't drink whiskey on פסח no matter what. So he didn't want to take it. So he said, \"רבי, I don't know, it's כשר לפסח, 100%. Why don't you want it?\" So finally he answered him in a form of a joke. He said to him, \"You know that מצה is called מיכלא דאסוותא, food of רפואה, it's a medicine. Don't you know that when you take medicine, you shouldn't drink משקה?\" So we don't drink משקה on פסח, but anyway this is the רפואה for the whole year. And that's why it's very important to be careful with not חס ושלום eating חמץ, and with the right מצה. The אריז״ל says that if a person is careful with a משהו of חמץ, with a drop of חמץ on פסח, is guaranteed, that's his expression, is guaranteed not to do any עבירות throughout the year. Well, it doesn't mean עבירות that you do intentionally. I mean, you still have free choice. But like this, there are certain times that we unintentionally do something wrong. But if we are careful with a drop of חמץ on פסח, we are guaranteed that we will not have any problems with a whole year with any עבירות. Therefore, the right thing to do is to be 100%, do everything, we could be מיקל, we could על פי הלכה, let's go all the way, and then השם will go all the way with us.

Yes. Okay. We care a little about selling the חמץ, sell it. Now's the time to sell the חמץ. Right. Besides that, you we we nullify, we make we מבטל the חמץ, we went after the בדיקה we search for the חמץ, then the next morning before we burn the חמץ we do the we till we do we מבטל again, we we nullify this חמץ again, and with all that we we nullify twice, we מבטל the the חמץ twice, with all of that, yeah, the selling of the חמץ, and then then you burn it, then if you find if you find some חמץ by accident, חס ושלום, find some some חמץ, it's an איסור, that's a you're you're you're you're חייב. But you won't you won't have Truth is, you won't be חייב. If you find it, you won't be חייב, because you sold it. Oh, you won't be חייב. But you have to burn it anyway, but you won't be חייב. Why you have to burn what what you find? If it's יום טוב or שבת, you cover it, but חול המועד, you burn it. Because it's not your You mean it's the גוי's? Yeah, but it's as if you made up that since it's known that if I find it, I'll burn it even though it's his. Yes. Okay. Shh. In the food? In the food, but not that you can see, not that if you hypothetically, if you said the ברכה to nullify the חמץ, are you better off eating the food before you said that ברכה, which nullified the חמץ inside the food? One second. Listen I I don't really understand what you're saying, but let me explain something, maybe that'll take care of it. Nullifying the חמץ has nothing to do with eating חמץ. You're not allowed to eat חמץ even if it's nullified. Let's say if I'm מבטל my חמץ, then I can eat the bread? 'I'm I'm מבטל חמץ.' The ביטול חמץ only helps concerning the prohibition of owning חמץ. But all you do is that you make the חמץ ownerless. But you can't eat חמץ that's ownerless anyway. There's nothing to do with the ביטול. But does it nullify this in food? No, no, that has nothing to do with nullifying it in food. It's nullifying as owning that I don't care, I don't want it, it's הפקר. That's it. But when it comes to eat, I can't eat חמץ even after you're מבטל it. Yes. Yeah. After, good. When you when you use a פסח'דיק pot to כשר חמץ'דיק כלים, what you should do afterwards is כשר the pot that you used to כשר the חמץ'דיק כלים. You have to re-כשר it, yes. You won't be, no one else will be there, too? Now that office is yours or you just they let you It's your office? Yeah, but but it is your office, so then you have the obligation of searching the חמץ there. If you're not, so then lock it up and sell it. No, they just lock Wait, just listen. Just lock it up and sell it in your חמץ, but then you can't go in there for whole for whole פסח. But if you but if you plan to go in, then you have to then you lock it up and don't let them, yes. No, she uses it, but herself. It's hers, the חמץ is hers, and she is almost like she rented it, even though there's another person that's an owner. No, if you She lets her She lets them come in. No, but if you sold it, then they can't come in to use the fax machine. During פסח, they can't come in. If you sold it, you have to lock it up and not let them in. So then you have to search for חמץ and and burn. Yeah, you could follow that book. Okay, he gives the opinion of the מגן אברהם and the ווילנא גאון. Yeah. We follow the ווילנא גאון, because the אלטער רבי holds like the ווילנא גאון. It's interesting that when it comes to הלכות of זמנים, the אלטער רבי is like the ווילנא גאון. Okay, that's all I wanted to know. Yes, who was going to ask something? Yes. Not כשר, I mean בדיקה, you can search for חמץ. What you share means you have a part in it. Or if someone else's office that he lets you use That's something else, then it's not yours. Then you just don't come in, and if he's a גוי or whatever, that's his business. But it was your חמץ? Might be your חמץ? Yeah, then you have to get rid of it. If it might be your חמץ and you're not selling The חמץ is there and it's a place which is going to be open and you're not selling it, so you should search. Yeah, you have חמץ there and you still use it. Yes. The what? The truth, in anything but water If it's pure pure, without water, it's not called געבראקס. Some people like, for instance, מצה with butter the kids always eat. So people are מיקל to eat מצה with butter. In eggs, if it's ממש, 100% because if you put it in other things, other than water, and there's a drop of water added, it's worse than water. So if you could be 100% sure, like in milk, but I don't know our milk if it doesn't have a drop of water in it. The wine, I'm not sure if the wine doesn't have somehow some drop of water. Eggs is a good example, because you crack the egg, you see there is no water, you make sure that it's dry 100%, then על פי הלכה, then it's not געבראקטס. Yeah, but they don't, why? Because it's very hard to be careful. Very hard to be careful, but if you would be able to be careful. Take the oil, I don't know if the oil how it is, if you can make it in oil. Now, the eggs is the only things that you see, but everything else that you don't see how it's process, you don't know what had what it has, and that's why you shouldn't do it. Huh? Yeah, but I don't know how this, maybe the I don't If it can, it can, that's okay. Yes. Handle. Okay, a knife with a handle. Not only a knife with a plastic handle, but a knife with a wooden handle cannot be kashered. And it's not because of the material. A plastic handle is a problem because plastic can't be kashered. The wooden handle is because anything that cannot be cleaned thoroughly cannot be kashered. Now, since the handle is connected, there is still a possibility for stuff to go in there, and that you cannot kasher. There are certain times that when there are things places that you cannot get to because it's a crack, not in the case of a wooden handle, let's say it's a metal thing. So I mentioned in the beginning, and I didn't come to the end, which I said you can't kasher if there is some dirt in the crack. But if it's let's say metal, you could take at the place of the crack, you could make a ליבון קל. You could go through with the torch a little bit, and that's okay. And then then after you go through with the ליבון קל on those little piece places, then you take the vessel and you kasher it, that's okay. No, a wooden handle a wooden handle you cannot kasher. Yeah, wooden could. The problem is not the wood. The problem is because it's made up of two pieces, and therefore there is always where the blade goes into the wood is always a little bit thing, you always see it get dirty and you can't clean you can't get there, unless you unscrew it and you see, but that's that's impossible. Yes. Right, everything is better to get new, but it's but stick deodorant, if you buy a regular stick deodorant, it's okay. It's better to change it, but to get another one. Lipstick, for instance, you should get פסחדיקע, but that's worse than everything else. Yes, because that you eat it. Anything that goes into your mouth, got to be very careful on פסח. Everything else is a שאלה of הנאה, of using, and this is food, because you eat, and that's why for that you got to be very careful. Yes. Okay, that's a good point. Buying before פסח and doing things versus doing it on פסח. Our whole חומרא and the whole טומל we make פסח, פסח is במשהו, it's a drop. In truth, it's only if it happens on פסח. On פסח, חמץ is not בטל בששים, it doesn't become nullified. Before פסח, חמץ does become בטל בששים. Now, in some cases it becomes בטל before פסח, but when פסח comes around, it's called חוזר ונעור, it gets awakened again. But in some cases it doesn't. לח בלח, which means if it's a mixture of liquid with liquid, which becomes one, and when we say liquid with liquid, it doesn't mean דווקא actually two types of liquid, let's say thin flour, like חמצדיקע flour, פסחדיקע, things like that, then we say when comes פסח, it doesn't become again נתעורר, awakened. But יבש ביבש, if it's dry things, then it does become. Anyway, there are some things that don't, but many things before פסח are בטל, and therefore, if you do all these things before פסח, then even if חס ושלום there was a משהו, a drop of חמץ, it's בטל. There are some people who actually cook every single thing of פסח they cook before פסח. There are some people who prepare buckets of water before פסח, because if in case there was some kind of, it's בטל. And that's why that's the מעלה before פסח. And the reason before פסח it is בטל is a very simple thing, because before פסח, it's still כשר. It's called היתר. היתרא בלע, it's היתר, and if it's היתר, it becomes בטל. Even though it's חמץ a משהו, but it becomes בטל. On פסח, it's איסור. It's forbidden. And it's forbidden, it doesn't become בטל, and that's why anything that can be done before פסח is better. Huh? What was your question? Before you nullify the חמץ? Has nothing to do with the ביטול of חמץ. If that was your question, fine, but that's you started saying if you before you nullified the חמץ, has nothing to do with nullifying. If that's what you meant, then this is your answer. If you meant just before פסח, to prepare, to cook and prepare all your food before פסח, oh yes, yes, it's better. Not everyone Could do it, you have a big family. That's extra extra חומרא which most people aren't careful, but if someone wants to be careful of that, it's a ודאי good. Mr. Brafman, you had something to ask? Yes. Yes. You mentioned before about cooking eggs in a pot because of possibly alcohol on the shells, but even before that, you're supposed to you're supposed to crack the crack the egg to see if there's a blood spot. I thought that the I was a I was a We're talking about cooking eggs, cooking eggs, hard boiled eggs. Before you cook the egg, you're supposed to check and see if there's How do you how do you check before you cook a hard boiled egg? Well, then you don't cook hard boiled eggs then. You don't you don't Why not? Why don't you cook? You never cooked hard boiled egg? I mean after it's hard boiled you don't cook it, but That's right, but what I'm saying you can't So, in your case We're talking about cooking eggs. How do you check how do you how do you check it After or if you're cook if you're using eggs for for a to cracking eggs, raw eggs into the food, then you check when you crack it. Right. What happens if you want to cook eggs? You want to cook 10 eggs, 12 eggs, what do you do? Make an egg salad. Hard egg, you want to make hard eggs. So they're they're un- they're unchecked, and you don't for blood, right? So I'm asking you, throughout the year, how do you eat? You ever ate egg salad? How does that happen? That's what I like about The egg had got to be checked for blood, isn't that Right. That's what I'm saying. Cooked eggs, the פוסקים hold you don't have to check. People who are מהדר do check it, but it has nothing to do but this In this case, that's a that's a yearly thing, has nothing to do with פסח. בכלל, we try to be מהדר to check even cooked eggs. פסח at night by the סדר, all I can say is that I remember standing by the רבי's סדר more than once, and our מנהג is, and many people have the same מנהג, that when we finish with everything, when we start שולחן ערוך, we start with eating the egg of the סדר plate in the salt water. So, I remember Now the question is: should you check the egg? There's a problem: if you check the egg, you might find a blood spot, that means that the egg that you used on the סדר wasn't And since על פי דין you don't have to check, so I guess you don't check. So, I'll tell you, I saw more than one year, the רבי would open would crack the egg, not check, and ate it in two bites. Now, I don't know what the reason was, it could be was because of that, that just in case there was a blood spot, it should be בטל בששים, or I don't know. He didn't bite slowly, he ate it in two bites, he ate the whole egg, but he didn't open to check it. If you check it, you check between the yolk and the white? Right, it's on the white. When it's raw, it's on the yellow, and if it's cooked, it's on the white. On the white, but where the white Inside, right, not on the outside, inside on the white, yeah. על פי דין, it says in שולחן ערוך, in the מפרשים, that the האר״י ז״ל did not check cooked eggs. The האר״י ז״ל did not check cooked eggs. And that was those years when they didn't have candled eggs, where now you hardly ever have a blood spot. Yes. Is the is the difference with the the dentures is because food can get caught in the denture or the material of the denture itself? Because it absorbs the חמץ, just like any vessel. What about root canal or or a cap? Oh, well, that's very Since it became part of your teeth, so some people are I'll tell you the truth, some people who have fillings are also careful not to eat really clean, not to eat hot, really hot. But that's already extra, most people don't do that, but the reason is because it became part of your tooth, so it's built into the person. But things that you take out, that's ממש like a regular כלי. Now, it's never never used for a כלי ראשון, you don't put hot stuff from a כלי ראשון, boiling thing, but still. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, but just for things which are not which you put in with the peels. Yes. What's that? Some people who like tomatoes, but you don't want to eat anything you can't peel, so they peel the tomatoes. Now, in order to peel tomatoes, you have some people the way you do it is you put it into warm water for a minute or something, so you're putting it into a כלי with the peel on, so use the same כלי used for eggs. Yes. Why can't you kasher the the faucets and then cover it? Cover it, the cover doesn't hold. I know from experience. Falls off, and the faucet is the worst part of the whole house, falls off. Therefore, to try to pour water, but it's not a hundred percent the best, so you do both, and that's the Okay, yes. Last question: you mentioned that if you're boiling utensils, to be careful they don't lie one on another, one on one on. If it's boiling, keep the boiling water till it gets to the bottom, right? No, but it doesn't matter, so it's wet into the boiling water before it touched, but if you put them in together, it's no good, but if you put it separately, so it's okay. If you can Hold for one second, please, gentlemen.