The Talmud teaches that 30 days before Passover, we should start learning about theholiday and its meaning. In that spirit, I humbly offer "30 Days of Liberation." For each of the next 30 days, I will offer a brief messagedrawn from the wisdom Pass
The Talmud teaches that 30 days before Passover, we should start learning about theholiday and its meaning. In that spirit, I humbly offer "30 Days of Liberation." For each of the next 30 days, I will offer a brief messagedrawn from the wisdom Pass
a message fromRabbi Knopf
The Talmud teaches that 30 days before Passover, we should start learning about the holiday and its meaning. In that spirit, I humbly offer "30 Days of Liberation." For each of the next 30 days, I will offer a brief message drawn from the wisdom Passover imparts. I hope you find these messages meaningful and inspiring. Feel free to share/forward.
30 Days of Liberation: Day 16 - One of the most curious Passover traditions is "selling" one's hametz, leavened food items. Biblical law forbids Jews from owning any hametz during Passover. But since destroying or disposing all hametz is often costly and/or wasteful, Jewish law created a legal fiction in which a non-Jew buys a Jew's hametz before the onset of the festival, owns it during the holiday, and returns it afterward, even as the hametz never actually leaves the Jew's premises. This temporary legal fiction symbolizes a deep and eternal truth: nothing in our possession is truly owned by us. We may have things, but they aren't, strictly speaking, ours. Judaism teaches that all belongs to God, a principle that reminds us not to worship our things, to be able to let go easily, to distribute resources equally, and to freely share with those who have less. Selling hametz may seem silly, but relinquishing ownership of our things even as we continue to possess them is as serious a spiritual and moral practice as they come.
