A-Z OF JEWISH VALUES -

F FOR FLEXIBILITY

FLEXIBILITY IN PESACH OBSERVANCE

Of all the festivals, Pesach is the most challenging to the modern Jew. It is the one which makes the most demands of our personal observance.

I suppose if there is one word that sums up the Reform approach to observance it is ‘Flexibility’. You might actually say that Flexibility is a value of Reform Judaism.

There is indeed much flexibility in Judaism per se.

Let me illustrate this for you with one very practical example: the removal of leaven from our homes before Pesach.

It stems from the verse which reads – no leaven shall be seen with you, within where you live for 7 days.” (Deut 16:4) No leaven shall be seen with you (or in another place it says ‘be found with you’) – what does that mean?

You could take it very strictly to mean your home shall be a leaven-free zone.

That’s not actually how rabbinic law interprets it! Halachah takes it to mean ‘not in your possession’. That allows for some flexibility.

Now this is where the Reform approach comes in.

Rabbinic law allows you the flexibility of keeping leaven on your premises whilst technically renouncing possession of it. How does it do that? By means of a legal fiction.

A legal document is drawn up allowing for the ‘sale’ of the leaven to a non- Jew with the condition that it is sold back after the festival, allowing you to keep the leaven on your premises – all you have to ensure is that it is suitably locked away. It ceases then to be leaven seen ‘with you’. It’s no longer with you, it’s with someone else. It’s called a shtar mechirah, and you actually don’t have to do anything except sign your name to the document and make a minimum down payment which is later returned – and a rabbi deals with it all on paper. (You may have seen the form for this in the local Jewish newspaper).

If you have a relative living at home who observes the sale of leaven you, as the householder, may have to go through this formality for them even though you yourself do not observe it. And it costs little or nothing and only takes as long as you need to write your name.

Despite the fact that it is flexibility, it makes things easy – it is a convenience (something which Reform is frequently accused of promoting) nevertheless - we don’t encourage it, or we discourage it.

Flexibility yes, fictional legalism no.

There’s nothing wrong with legal fictions as such; no legal system can survive without them. The inventiveness of the rabbis of ancient times helped them keep their legal system within humane dimensions. Their flexibility enabled Judaism survive. (Even helped Jews survive – there’s the Torah prohibition against lending money on interest – a legal document circumventing this, enabled Jews to engage in banking.

Our flexibility is not a case of finding legal ways around the law. Neither can our flexibility be just a case of habit or convenience. Our flexibility takes other values into account.

One such value is the value of history or historical awareness.

Louis Jacobs observes that the origin of the sale of leaven was that many Polish Jews at one time were innkeepers and it was physically and economically impossible to clear all the leaven off their premises. So they invoked and implemented this ancient legal loophole,

It was arguably unnecessary, (for this reason). There is a declaration made when leaven is symbolically burnt before Pesach to the effect that ‘any leaven which is still in my possession – let it be as the dust of the earth’.

The night before Pesach you do the search for leaven – this year because first night Pesach is Saturday night you do it on Thursday night (and if you have small children is a bit of traditional fun to hide chunks of bread – usually 10 – around the house – and have them hunt for it – traditionally with a candle and a feather to scoop it up.) It’s all then burnt together with the feather on Friday morning when the declaration is made.

This year again because of Shabbat some people keep a small amount of chametz for kiddush on Friday night and Shabbat, although since that can cause difficulties, matzah may be eaten at kiddush – though egg matzah to distinguish it from the matzah to be eaten for the first time at Seder.

So what solutions do we have available for the leaven question? Keeping it locked away is one. (Pet food is an issue here. Some people move it to the garage – which is still your premises – but out of sight out of mind? You still have to feed them).

By far the best solution from a Reform point of view would be to give away as much as you can – especially to the homeless.

This moves us beyond the pragmatic field of flexibility into the domain of the stronger value, especially for a festival like Pesach, so full of moral meaning, the value of caring for our fellow human beings.