Selling your Chometz Online

Only 24 hours are left before Pesach, a holiday of family gathering and joy, that many of us will spend in isolation and far away from our beloved one. Spread all over the world or city of residence, in our places of quarantine, we are forced to adapt to new circumstances. A very interesting task for the halachic authorities to find the right solutions for those times, taking into account the pikuah nefesh - saving one´s life - considerations, while respecting the strict rules of the halacha.

For example, the case of selling chametz - leaven, that it is not permitted to be owned by a Jew during the Pesach holiday.

The traditional take

One of the most sacrosant laws of the Pesach is that you are not allowed to own any chametz in your home. The chametz should also not be given to your pets or cattle. 

In the old times, when the food resources were relatively limited, the traditional way was to sell the chometz to a non-Jew or simply burn it - first you had to search for it - bedikat, followed by destruction - biur.

However, later the things were becoming complicated. Especially in Eastern Europe, as Jews were forbade from working in the field of the agriculture, they opened tavern that manufactured and sold beers and other grain-based liquor. In this case, destroying such a large stock would create a significant financial loss. The same refers to the kosher stores or restaurants that own chametz and cannot sell it all before the holidays start. The halachic solution is to sell or rent a space owned by the Jew to a non-Jew that will acquire the property and will sell back after the holidays is over. The transaction is usually intermediated by a rabbi who is also the garantor/agent of the transfer. A complex sale requires a detailed decision, eventually took by a Bet Din - rabbinical tribunal - with more than 3 rabbis. This solution was introduced by Rabbi Yoel Sirkis (Bach) that lived in Europe between 1560 and 1640.  

Selling your chametz online

In most cases, the destruction/selling of the chametz involves personal interaction. You burn the chametz together with other members of the kehila - community -, you have to talk directly with your rabbi about the details of the property transfer. Unfortunately, social distancing rules that affects any community and individual in the world nowadays, makes such a contact impossible. 

Therefore, there is only method left, which is in line with the halacha, while avoiding any direct contact between the participants to the transaction: selling your chametz online.

I personally use this method for a long time, when happened to travel and not being in a place with a significant Jewish community. I always used the Chabad services which are fast, simple and kosher and for a long time, the only ones who did it. (On a side note, it is fantastic how, among all the Orthodox groups, Chabad is the best prepared to cope with the stringencies of the new COVID realities, with its relatively openness towards the modern world - like listening to the news - or introducing innovative solutions to halachic questions, like the online selling of the chometz). 

This method, that for many time was considered not necessarily non-problematic, is recommended by many Orthodox groups, including the Rabbinate in Israel. Each of this group has developed their own online structure, with a rabbi in charge with managing all the requests. After all, Internet is not so treif and if you use it wisely, it help respecting the letter of the halacha, particularly during those strange times we are in.