Keeping Our Home & Domain Free of Leaven & Chametz from Passover through the Feast of Unleavened Bread

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We are to maintain our home and all territory that is under our control completely free of leaven and chametz, from Passover through all seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Category: Days & Seasons

Type: Positive

Form: Explicit

Source dataset: Old Testament

Uniqueness: Unique

Classical commandment: Yes

New Covenant Literal Application

Applies to Person Categories: Everyone

Literal Application: mandated, optional

More explanation about New Covenant Literal Application

The New Covenant Literal Application Code (NCLA) is an interpretive guide used by the authors to indicate which person categories a mitzvah applies to, and at what level of literal compliance.

It combines person categories such as Jewish, K'rov Yisrael, and Gentile, together with male/female distinctions and an application level such as mandated, recommended, optional, or prohibited.

This code reflects the authors' interpretive opinion and is provided for prayerful consideration. On this page, the technical code is summarized into plain language to help new readers understand it more easily.

Read the full explanation from the source

Bible references

Key NT Scriptures

1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Galatians 5:7-9
John 2:23
John 6:4
John 11:55
Luke 22:7-13
Mark 14:12-16
Matthew 26:17-19

Key OT Scriptures

Exodus 12:15
Exodus 12:19
Exodus 12:33-34
Exodus 12:42-49
Exodus 13:7

Bible verses copyright: PUBLIC DOMAIN except in the United Kingdom, where a Crown Copyright applies to printing the KJV. See http://www.cambridge.org/about-us/who-we-are/queens-printers-patent

Commentary

Rabbi Michael Rudolph

This Mitzvah requires that no leaven, whether alone or part of food containing leaven ( chametz ), be in a Jew's possession or within his control during the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This implies that he (or she) must, before sundown on the 14 th day of Nisan , remove it from his house, garage, shed, trash bin, business property, territory domain, or anywhere else where he has proprietary rights of control, and must not let it back in for seven full days. This abstinence commemorates the Jews' hasty departure from Egypt, when they had no time to allow their bread to rise and therefore had to eat unleavened bread on the first leg of their journey. According to Exodus 12:19 , obedience to this commandment is not an option for either a Jew or a Gentile who is a " citizen of the land " ( K'rov Yisrael ). Leaven is analogized to sin in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 and in Galatians 5:7-9 , and its removal from our lives is directly linked to the Passover, and to the Passover lamb - our Messiah. But leaven is not always symbolic of sin, as we can see from Leviticus 23:17 , which requires that the firstfruits bread offering of Shavuot be made with leaven. The particulars of what should be considered leaven and chametz are controversial within Jewry. Sephardim and Ashkenazim follow different rules on the subject, and Messianic Jewish communities are equally diverse. Is leaven anything that can cause food to rise, or must there be fermentation in order for it to qualify? What grains must be removed from the house because they are subject to spontaneous fermentation during storage? Rice? Barley? Beans? Discussions of such particulars are found in the Talmudic literature, but not in any of the classical mitzvah codifications. I do not think it would be judicious for me to express my opinion of these particulars here. The general idea in the Scriptures is that the Israelites' bread that would otherwise have fermented with yeast did not have time to rise. Therefore, our not keeping casually-stored grains that would have had time to ferment and rise would seem to be the general intent of the biblical text. The legal fiction, in which people sometimes engage, of keeping control of their chametz (whether stored in their house or not) by selling it to a Gentile for a minimum amount of money with the understanding that the Gentile will sell it back to them after the days of Unleavened Bread is not in accord with the spirit of the Scriptures. People should gauge their purchases and production of leavened products so as to minimize their material loss, but they should not engage in subterfuge. This Mitzvah is mandated for Jews and K'rovei Yisrael , but not for Gentiles generally; the text of 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 cited above is therefore metaphorical in its application as to them.

Classical commentators

Maimonides, Meir, and HaChinuch distinguish between not possessing leaven and not finding it in one's house. Meir and HaChinuch require that a Jew search his house for leaven, whereas Maimonides does not mention such a requirement. None of the commentators attempt to define "leaven", but HaChinuch says that yeast is an example of it. Meir states that if a non-Jew places chametz in a Jew's house and the Jew has not taken responsibility for it, the chametz need not be destroyed; otherwise it must be.

Classical sources

Maimonides

Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, 12th century) organized all 613 Torah commandments into a structured list. These linked items show where this Law of Messiah commandment overlaps with that classical framework.

Meir of Rothenburg

Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (13th century, Germany) was a leading Talmudic authority. These reference numbers link this commandment to his halachic rulings.

MP22, MN3, MN2

Source and License

Based on The Law of Messiah - Torah from a New Covenant Perspective by Michael Rudolph and Daniel C. Juster.

Volume 1 & 2 | Volume 3

License: CC BY-ND 4.0 (Attribution required, NoDerivatives). CC BY-ND 4.0

Disclaimer: the original content is authored by Rabbi Michael Rudolph and Rabbi Daniel Juster; additional notes or implementation details on this website are not part of their original work and do not represent their views.

Record source: The Law of Messiah - Torah from a New Covenant Perspective - Volume 1 & 2

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