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Removing Chametz
The process for removing chametz from your house is very involved, and frankly very few people find the energy to perform a thorough cleaning in the traditionally prescribed manner. The steps include:
- Cleaning all possible locations where chametz might have been eaten or might be found in the house. This means checking under the cushions of your sofa, in the pockets of your coats and pants, on closet floors, etc. After a room is entirely cleaned and declared chametz-free, it is called "Pesachdik" and no further eating in that room is allowed until after Passover.
- "Kashering" your dining room and kitchen tables by pouring boiling water over them and then thoroughly scrubbing them down with soap and water. After kashering, the tables are covered until Passover.
- Using only dishes, silverware, pots, utensils, etc. that are dedicated for Passover use. This implies putting away all dishes, silverware, pots, utensils, etc. normally used during the year.
- Emptying and scrubing down the entire refrigerator to remove all traces of chametz. This normally includes the freezer as well.
- Kashering your stove and oven. This involves a thorough scrubbing of the entire oven, stove top, and racks and then turning the stove (and stove tops) on for over one hour at the highest temperature. A microwave oven can be kashered by boiling a bowl of water inside it for more than 20 minutes.
- Scouring the sink, counters, and all other appliances with boiling water.
- Scrubbing down the floors, windows, and all other parts of the house.
Once the house is thoroughly cleaned, chametz may still be eaten up until the day before Passover. That evening, however, the Bedikat Chametz ritual is performed to finally dispose of any remaing chametz. Only after this may the house be considered chametz-free and ready for Passover.
Eating Kosher for Passover
To celebrate a kosher Passover, you will need to ensure that you eat nothing with chametz during the entire seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (i.e., from Nisan 15 through Nisan 22). According to the rabbinics, if you intentionally eat even one molecule of chametz during the week of Passover, you are breaking a Torah prohibition.
Okay then, what to eat during the week of Pesach? Obviously enough you won't be eating doughnuts or pastries! What should you eat for the seven days of Passover?
Each year the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (UOJCA) publishes a list of approved and permitted foods. I recommend checking with them or a Rabbinic authority for Passover dietary restrictions.
Preparing your Clothes for the Seder
Any clothing that you are going to wear to the Passover table must likewise be entirely free from any trace of chametz. Many people buy new outfits or send their clothing out to the dry-cleaners in time for the Seder.
Clean Haggadot
Finally, any book at the Seder table must be "chametz-free." Since this is difficult to accomplish, many Orthodox Jews will wrap their Haggadah (i.e., the liturgical book containing the story of the Passover that is read during the Seder) in plastic and put it away all year long so that it is completely clean for the Seder table (if you want to study the Haggadah before Passover, you must read from a different one than the one you will bring to the Seder table).
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