Today we finished the first chapter of massekhet TB Pesakhim and started the the second chapter with daf 21. We have completed the first half of our search and destroy mission. The second chapter begins by discussing when and how the hametz must be destroyed. It’s now the morning of the 14th of Nisan. According to the Torah we are not permitted to eat, own, and derive benefit from hametz from the seventh hour of the day until the conclusion of Passover (seven days in Israel and eight days in the diaspora).
Since telling time was an imprecise science because there were no watches to rely upon, one had to use the sun’s position in the sky to figure out what hour of the day it was. The rabbis enacted the rule one must cease eating hametz earlier than the seventh hour to avoid violating a Torah law. Of course there was a disagreement.“Rabbi Meir says: Onemay eatleavened bread on the morning of the fourteenth day of Nisan for the entire fifth hour, and he burnsit at the beginning of the sixth hour. Rabbi Yehuda says: Onemay eat it for the entire fourth hour, he suspends his consumption of it for the entire fifth hour, and he burns it at the beginning of the sixth hour. ” (Sefaria.org translation)
Neither of these sages seem to be the author of the first mishnah of our chapter because it speaks about feeding the hametz to animals and deriving other benefits from the hametz during the fifth hour of the day. “MISHNA:For the entire time that it is permitted to eat leavened bread, one may also feed it to his domesticated animals, to non-domesticated animals, and to birds; and one may sell it to a gentile; and it is permitted to derive benefit from it. After its time passes, it is prohibited to derive benefit from it, and one may not even light an oven or a stove with leavened bread… (now we are in the Gemara-gg) Rabba bar Ulla said: The mishna is in accordance with the opinion of Rabban Gamliel. As we learned in a mishna that Rabban Gamliel says: Non-sacredleavened bread may be eaten on the fourteenth of Nisan during the entire fourth hour, leavened bread that is teruma may be eaten during the entire fifth hour, and one burns the leavened bread at the beginning of the sixth hour. And this is what the mishna is saying: For the entire time that it is permittedfor a priest to partake of teruma,although an Israelite may not eat leavened bread at that time, an Israelite may feed non-sacredfood to his domesticated animals, to non-domesticated animals, and to birds.”(Sefaria.org translation)
Based on the Rosh, Asher ben Yechiel, the Shulkhan Arukh decides the proper course of action is to stop eating hametz by the end of the fourth hour, may feed t hametz to animals and derive benefit from it by selling it to a non-Jew through the fifth hour. Any left over hametz that the animals didn’t eat must be destroyed with all the other hametz at the beginning of sixth hour. (Orekh Hayyim, 443:1)
In Springfield we had a fish tank and the fish food we feed our fish was hametzdic. Talking to a friend who owned a pet supply store, I learned that he sold shrimp as fish food as well as the regular hametz kind. Since one is allowed to benefit from nonkosher food (except by eating it!), I told him that he could advertise kosher for Passover fish food. He didn’t take up my “brilliant” marketing ploy.
The mishnah concludes how one may destroy the hametz. “Rabbi Yehuda says: The removal of leavened bread is to be accomplished only through burning. And the Rabbis say: Burning is not required, as onemay even crumble it and throw it into the wind or cast it into the sea.” (Sefaria.org translation) The halakha follows the rabbis' position over Rabbi Yehuda’s. (Shulkhan Arukh, Orekh Hayyim, 445:1)
I’m glad I have other options of destroying the hametz. There is a custom at my synagogue that people give the hametz they found during their search to the rabbi to destroy. One of my predecessors had such a large (but contained) fire to burn the hametz that our non-Jewish neighbors who didn’t know this custom called the fire department! Fire engines came roaring down our street with sirens blasting. I don’ know if the shul was liable for a fine or not. I didn’t want to explain to the fire department what I was doing and chance a fine on my watch.
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