11. Hide and Go Seek: The prohibition against finding chometz in one’s possession over Passover

The law continues the focusing of our attention on the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt, particularly on the haste with which the Jews left. As we mentioned in the previous mitzvah, the Jews were rushed out of Egypt so quickly that their dough had no time to rise.

The Talmud in Pesachim 5b clarifies that this doesn’t mean just that one may not have chometz in one’s home, it means in one’s possession (wherever the chometz may be physically located). This applies both to the leavening agent (e.g., yeast) and to any of the five grains that may become leavened. (The five grains are wheat, rye, oats, barley and spelt.)

The Ashkenazic practice is not to eat kitniyos (legumes), which are similar in some aspects to actual grain. (Examples of kitniyos include rice, corn and beans.) However, the rabbis only extended this rule to eating kitniyos; it is not prohibited for Ashkenazim to possess them over Passover.

Details of this law are discussed in the beginning of Pesachim, starting on page 5b. These details include questions of chometz that belongs to another Jew, to a non-Jew, or that has been consecrated for Temple use, as well as mixtures of chometz and non-chometz, and chometz that is no longer edible. In the Shulchan Aruch, it can be found in Orach Chaim 431. It is #201 of the 365 negative mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos. This mitzvah applies to both men and women, in all times and places and it is #3 of the 194 negative mitzvos that can be fulfilled today in the Chofetz Chaim’s Sefer HaMitzvos HaKatzar.