1. Passover service times
2. Last-minute Passover Seder options.
3. The Fast of the Firstborn
4. How to sell your chametz
5. How to check for, destroy, and nullify your chametz

Please note:

SALE OF CHAMETZ FORM MUST BE RECEIVED

BEFORE 7:00 PM ET ON THURSDAY, APRIL 10!

Passover Service times

N.B.: We will not be holding evening services either night of the seder. You are encouraged to daven privately or with seder guests before you begin your seder.

Sunday Apr. 13

1st Day of Pesach

Yom Tov morning service 9:00 AM (Hybrid)

Hallel, Tefillat Tal (Prayer for Dew)

Monday Apr. 14

2nd Day of Pesach

Yom Tov morning service 9:00 AM (Hybrid)

Hallel

Monday Apr. 14

YT Mincha / Maariv 7:45 PM (Zoom)

Friday Apr. 18

Eve of 7th Day of Pesach

Mincha/ Kabbalat Shabbat / YT Maariv 6:30 PM (Zoom)

Saturday Apr. 19

7th Day of Pesach

YT Shabbat morning service 9:00 AM (Hybrid)

Hallel, selections from Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs),

Shirat HaYam (Song of the Sea)

Saturday Apr. 19

Eve of 8th Day of Pesach

Yom Tov Shabbat Mincha / YT Maariv 7:40 PM (Zoom)

Sunday Apr. 20

8th Day of Pesach

Yom Tov morning service 9:00 AM (Hybrid)

Hallel, Yizkor

Sunday Apr. 20

Yom Tov Mincha / Maariv 8:00 PM (Zoom)

Two Good Seder Options (if you don’t already have…)

If you do not have a seder to attend, here are two good options, one in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan:

1. Dirah Brooklyn – this is a project of Chabad in Gowanus. Very welcoming. Reasonably priced, and subsidized/free options if you need.

FIRST NIGHT: https://www.dirahbrooklyn.org/civicrm/event/info%3Fid%3D276

SECOND NIGHT: https://www.dirahbrooklyn.org/civicrm/event/info%3Fid%3D277

2. Ohel Ayalah – this is a more non-denominational option. It is the brainchild of Rabbi Dr. Judith Hauptman (of JTS). EMJC has worked with them before. They still have some slots open. First night is in-person. Second night is a Zoom seder.

https://ohelayalah.org/events/seders

Ta’anit Bechorot – the Fast of the Firstborn

Thursday, April 10, is a “personal” fast day for firstborn sons and, according to some rabbis, firstborn children in general. For information about the fast, (and to see if it applies to you) see this article:

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-fast-of-the-first-born/

There are many variations in practice, so if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Typically, the fast takes place the day before Passover, but because of Shabbat, it is moved to a day earlier.

There is a widespread tradition that a joyous occasion overrides the obligation to fast. We will create a joyous occasion by having a brief study session that ends a tractate of Mishna or Talmud (a traditional celebration point). If you are a first-born child, please have some cake and a little schnapps with you next to your Zoom screen on Thursday morning so that you may partake. The service begins at 8am as usual. The study session will be brief – 10 to 15 minutes.

Selling Chametz

Must be done BEFORE 7:00 PM ET on Thursday, April 10, 2025.

As a final (and crucial) precaution before the holiday begins, we must engage in the act of selling our chametz. Any chametz that remains in our homes can be temporarily sold to a non-Jew for the duration of the holiday – it must be stored away somewhere in our home and separated from everything else; it does not belong to us for the 8 days of Passover. This legal transfer absolves you of having any chametz in your possession, since it’s not really your possession. Rabbi Sam Levine will be facilitating the sale of chametz. It is customary (but not required) to make a donation of ma’ot chittin (“wheat money” – charity) upon selling your chametz. This money will go to EMJC and some will be disbursed to charity. You can sell your chametz by filling out the following form. This form will not be available after 7:00 PM ET on Thursday, April 10, 2025.

YOUR CHAMETZ WILL RETURN TO YOUR OWNERSHIP AFTER THE END OF THE HOLIDAY,

ON SUNDAY, APRIL 20, 9:00 PM

Searching for and destroying chametz

The rituals of bedikat chametz and bi’ur chametz (searching for and destroying chametz) take place on the night before the eve of Passover and the following morning. This year, because of Shabbat, the search for chametz takes place on Thursday night, April 10.

Please follow these guidelines for dealing with searching for and destroying chametz when Passover falls on a Saturday night (with thanks to Rabbi Carie Carter of PSJC):

This year, Pesach begins on Saturday night, and that means that a lot of the Pre-Pesach preparation has to be adjusted just a bit:

Thursday evening is the time for Bedikat Hametz (for searching your home for hametz). Because this is done a day earlier than we might have thought, we are permitted to keep enough hametz for Shabbat meals if we would like. (If you do this, don’t recite the passage Kol Hamira – see below – when you burn/dispose of your hametz—you wouldn’t want to negate the food that you are still planning to consume).

Friday morning is the time for Biyyur Hametz (burning/or destroying the hametz you collected the night before as mentioned above). Even if you have food set aside for Shabbat, your stove should now be ready for Pesach. And all cooking done from this point forward should be done in your Pesach pots and only Pesach utensils used.

How do I eat meals on Shabbat leading into Passover night?

There are two traditional practices that make this question complicated:

1) It is customary to abstain from Matzah the day before Pesach;

2) We are told to eat three meals on Shabbat, two of them with Hamotzi.

Two options have developed to address this dilemma:

Option 1) We save two small challot, and keep them on a special hametz dish that will serve as a hallah crumb catcher. These hallot are eaten at Friday night dinner and Shabbat lunch. Then, anything left over is thrown out and the kol chamira formula—including the line “hametz that I know about”— is recited following this second meal.

Option 2) Remove all hametz earlier in the week (by Friday morning), and serve Pesach-friendly meals over Shabbat, using egg matzah (matzah ashirah) for haMotzi. Matzah ashirah is kosher for Passover but cannot be eaten to fulfill the mitzvah of eating matzah at the Seder.

Seudah Shlishit (the third meal towards the end of Shabbat) should include neither hametz nor matzah.

You can buy a kit for bedikat chametz at ShopRite on McDonald Avenue or most stores in Midwood.

More Questions?

At the following link, you’ll find the 2025 Passover Guide from the Rabbinical Assembly. It’s full of useful information about kashering your home and which foods require a Passover hekhsher:

https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/pesah-guide-5785_0.pdf

And of course, you can always contact me at salevine66@gmail.com.

“The Search for Chametz”   Bernard Picart, 1723

The mistress of the house, putting leavened bread in various places

for her husband to search for and find

1. Bedikat Chametz (checking for chametz)

It is customary to place a small piece of bread in each room of the house the night before Erev Pesach and then do a symbolic “search” for it by candlelight, sweeping up the last crumbs with a feather.

Before the search make this blessing:

Praised are You, Lord our God, Sovereign of the universe, who has sanctified us with commandments, and commanded us about removing chametz.

After the search recite the following (it is preferable to say it in English if you do not understand Aramaic):

All chametz and leaven in my possession that I have not seen and have not eliminated and don’t know about shall be nullified and become ownerless, like the dust of the earth.

2. Bi’ur Chametz (destroying the chametz)

There are several ways to perform biur chametz (ridding ourselves of chametz).

1. Burning: this is the traditional manner. Biur literally means “burning” and if you choose to destroy your chametz this way please do so responsibly!
2. Flushing it down the toilet
3. Crumbling it and scattering it to the wind
4. Disposing of it in a public waste receptacle (not in your home)

3. Bittul Chametz (nullification of the chametz)

After burning the chametz, say the following (it is preferable to say it in English if you do not understand Aramaic):

All Chametz and leaven in my possession that I have seen and that I have not seen, that I have burned and that I have not burned, that I have destroyed and that I have not destroyed, shall be nullified and become ownerless, like the dust of the earth.