Jonathan Kamens 86 47

Hello fellow #Pesach #Passover celebrators. I'm going to let those of you who go all-out to make your house kosher for Passover in on a little secret that I wish someone had told me decades ago when I was a young frummie:

"Invisible chametz" only matters on surfaces that are going to touch food during the holiday.

Let me explain by way of examples…
#Jewstodon #Mazeldon (1/6)

Mar 31 at 5:53pmWeb
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 476d ago
We have a glass-fronted breakfront in our house. It has in it many food service items, e.g., serving platters and crystal glasses.
Decades ago when we got the breakfront, our Orthodox rabbi told us we had to cover the glass for Pesach so we couldn't see any of the chametz dishes in it.
This was, in my non-rabbinic opinion, bullshit. (2/6)
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 476d ago
There are three prohibitions regarding chametz on Pesach: you can't (1) own it, (2) see it in your house, or (3) eat it.
Now let's talk about the chametz ostensibly absorbed into those dishes in our breakfront:
(1) We don't own it because we've nullified it AND sold our chametz.
(2) We can't see it *because it's invisible*.
(3) We're not going to use those dishes on Pesach, so we're obviously not going to eat it. (3/6)
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 476d ago
The same rabbi told us we had to cover our dining-room table legs with plastic. Apparently the concern was that there might somehow be chametz absorbed into these table legs, and then somehow during Pesach we might accidentally brush food against one of the table legs, causing it to absorb chametz, and then eat it?
This is absurd. There is no visible chametz on our table legs, we don't rub food against them and eat it, and the table legs are polished regularly with toxic polish. (4/6)
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 476d ago
The fundamental problem here, as I see it, is that too many rabbis have gotten it into their heads that preparing the house for Pesach is supposed to be *performative*. There's a lot of "frummer than thou" coming into play. It's garbage.
We are supposed to do what we need to do to be kosher for Passover. Nothing more, nothing less.
"לֹֽא־תֹסֵ֣ף עָלָ֔יו וְלֹ֥א תִגְרַ֖ע מִמֶּֽנּוּ", right? (5/6)
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 476d ago
If you want to be extra-frum and decide that when you look at your dishes or table legs, you are "seeing" the chametz absorbed into them because looking at them prompts you to imagine it, then by all means, you do you.
But if cleaning and setting up your house for Pesach has you all stressed out, like it does me every year, and you want to minimize the amount of unnecessary make-work, not bothering to hide things that are already invisible is probably a good place to start. (6/6)
Show threadJollyOrc6d ago

@jik TIL what chametz is, and the word "frummie"., thanks a lot for that thread!

Am I right to assume that "frum" is close in meaning to the german "fromm"?

Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 476d ago
@jollyorc I suspect so. "Frum" is a Yiddish word, and there's a lot of German absorbed into Yiddish, so it would not surprise me if that's where the Yiddish word came from.
Show threadJollyOrc6d ago

@jik just looked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frum, and indeed, it is the equivalent to the same-sounding German word.

And slightly amused that the opposite is frei, as "Fromm und frei" is a combination is sort of a staple self-description for some folks over here... ;)

Frum - Wikipedia

Show threaddotmavriq6d ago
@jik
Being Swedish I'm kind of interested if it's etymologically related to our 'from', meaning "(religiously) humble".
@jollyorc
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 476d ago
@dotmavriq @jollyorc I think it likely that they are related. Judaism considers humility and piety inextricably linked.