Since I was coming to Santa Fe, New Mexico for shabbos I asked the people who hooked me up with the people I stayed by if they needed anything from Dallas. I knew that New Mexico didn’t have kosher stores and therefore people always needed something treasures like a package of sour sticks or something. The request I got was for kosher for Pesach milk, cholov yisroel if possible. I was a little taken aback, I had no idea that milk had to be kosher for Pesach. Or was this some sort of crazy BT chumra that militant kiruv organizations convinced their alumni to take on?
I know many of us like to jump to conclusions when talking about some of the stupidity that takes place on Pesach. After all, Pesach one of the best holidays for showing off to all your friends how machmir and frum you are because you only drink rain water, because tap water may have become leavened at some point.
You can also sit around and discuss how thorough you cleaned your house because you know that those old croutons wedged between the garage motor and chain mechanisms are going to be tempting when you find them on Pesach.
I am actually surprised by some of the things I learned recently about food items that need hechsherim on Pesach. Seltzer for instance needs a hechsher, due to the fact that seltzer companies take the carbonation used to make beer or some sort of complicated issue like that. This of course means that my entire family is going to hell because for years my father maintained and still does, that seltzer does not need a hechsher ever, unflavored of course.
I do remember as a kid watching my uncle Hesh-Bear may he rest in peace checking for bugs in the lettuce under one of those things used for lice. I always thought that we could eat bugs that were invisible to the naked eye. I guess it was crazy in the 80s and but now they check water for bugs so hey…
I do wonder if people take on any of the following chumros in order to show off to their neighbors how frum they really are?
Wrapping the entire bathroom in tin foil and koshering out the toilet, since leavened items definitely made their way inside.
Burning the household toothbrushes with the chametz
Using only kosher for Pesach oil in the car
Cleaning out the birdhouses of any chametz
Taking out any chameztdicke restaurant coordinates from your GPS
Avoiding non-kosher grocery stores
Comparing looking at or think about chametz to pritzus
Peeling your lettuce (I know chabadnicks peel tomatoes)
Checking your matzo for bugs
Burning all of your biodegradable plates with the chametz
Emptying out the mikvah and refilling it just in case those random beard hairs had bread crumbs in them
Are there people that dry out there nouths with paper towels before eating matzo so their saliva doesn’t leaven it in their mouths?
Do some people think it better to not eat matzo then have it leaven in their mouths?
Other related posts:
Why cant there be a chumra database?
Tznius police want separate grocery lines
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{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
Used to be many ultra-frum (nutty) Lubavitch-type people would only eat the minimum matza requirements by the seder and the meals, and that was it for pesach, because they were worried about gebrochts. Then the Rebbe started a whole thing about how matza is the bread of faith and healing and you should eat lots of it. So most people do.
BTW, Hesh, spend Pesach by a really crazy Lubavitcher family (not a shliach) and you’ll have enough to make fun of come Pesach time for years.
I check under my toenails for chumetz.
the crazy lubab will not bring any outside processed foods into the house … except wine since its sold kosher lpesach all year round. Although there have been ultra-crazies that have gone the extra step and attempted to make their own wine … it didnt end well btw.
I guess now that this post has turned into the lubab chumra post, how about those that fry everything (eggs, fries) in chicken fat?
Or those that eat matza in a bag, to avoid it falling anywhere where it can touch water?
Or those that say that soap and shampoo need a hechsher?
The ones that piss me off most, are the people that preach these and other ridiculous chumros, all while smoking on Pesach. These holier than thou creeps have no problem running around looking for a flame during leining on Pesach, just so they can puff on cigarettes that have aditives which are pure chametz.
I only eat in an underground vault during Pesach.
mg: My dear boy, you know not of what you speak. In fact, I know a goodly number of Lubavitchers who make their own wine, and while I myself would not deign to touch their products I know many you this wine exclusive of all others for their Passover needs.
mg: My dear boy, you know not of what you speak. In fact, I know a goodly number of Lubavitchers who make their own wine, and while I myself would not deign to touch their products I know many who use this wine exclusive of all others for their Passover needs.
Of course the milk has to be kosher for Pesach. If you would take a look at your milk carton you will see that they usually state fortified with vitamins……
Some of the vitamins could be chometz. This is not a new thing, I rememeber when living in an upstate community in NY over 20 years ago walking with my father to a Crowley milk processing plant on Shabbos because that is when they were doing the pesach run (it was not cholov yisroel) and my father had to check the seals on whatever it was they were adding into the milk.
Craziest thing I’VE ever seen: I know of a family that shechts their own cows so they know that its kosher for pesach…
my friends grandmother drinks castor oil erev pesach to rid her system of any chametz. ugh.
I go to a kosher for Pesach laser hair removal place to make extra sure… ok, ok, I can’t even pretend….
These are hilarious – I was talking with the guy the other day who wondered whether he had to clean his bowl for Pesach by scraping all the resin out.
This is nothing… I know of a Lubav family that only uses vegetables that you can peel and that don’t have any seeds. So really only potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips.
I know of another family who makes their own wine, bakes their own matzahs and only uses schmaltz.
Oh the joy.
Wow and I asked my mom to buy extra rice, beans and peanut butter so I could get through the week.
My favorite is a girl from my Hebrew school who called me today to ask if it was OK for her non-Jewish co-worker to bring flowers to a friend’s seder. Maybe the powder they add to keep them fresh longer???
People with braces are supposed to stick their faces in a scorching toaster oven for no less than 30 minutes.
Milk and eggs and pets are REAL issues.
I have lived in israel for 18 + years and worked with cows. has anyone thought of what the animals eat and if you own the animal the wheat is abig nono? The same goes for chickens/turkeys and if one own a pet well the same goes.
As far a milk goes in europe and in other places many people do not but dairy during the chag and hashgachot like the CRC take away the certification during the holiday since dairy products are problematic.
Eggs as well one should also take care.
Now wheather or not chalav yisrael milk deals with the reall chametz issues well one would have to ask the mashgiach.
and actually the OU on their web site what they say about milk is a little silly.
Only buy mily before peasach so one can mevatel any chametz.
so what does that mean that all milk is ok is not ok what
http://oukosher.org/index.php/passover/article/5742
click on the milk link and get to
Milk
Milk contains added vitamins that contain a slight chometz risk. Therefore it is best to purchase milk before Passover at which time chometz can be nullified (batel).
Do they sell shmurah chicken & beef? Watched from birth so that no chometz was consumed? Hmm, niche market!
Wallpaper is a REAL issue. Was the paste used to hang it gebrokst bunky?
The only things I know are these:
1) aint gonna eat grain stuff, but my rabbi says kitniyot are OK
2) I’m going to a seder
3) a buddy in Texas express mailed me two bottles of K4P Coca Cola. Considering #1 you might ask why would I bother? Simple. I remember the real sugar taste from when I was a kid. When I lived in NYC I’d buy this stuff every year and that was AGES before I thought of converting.
Next year, after me and wife are formally in, we’ll dump the chametz and buy some plastic plates and utensils. Not sure where I’m gonna find plastic chopsticks though. Those ones you see at places in the US just arent common here. Anyone know if its OK to just buy new wooden utensils just for use during Pesach?
I stay away from breast milk because I don’t know if she ate choometz before.
Chris_B: yes, it’s ok to buy new wooden utensils for Passover.
For all those who want to know what Lubavitch actually believes…
http://collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=3021
Some people also avoid fish (because it used to be preserved in booze back in the alte heim), carrots (because the Yiddish word for carrots in the same as the Hebrew word for expand), and sugar (because it used to be mixed with flour).
Since none of the above are made with grains, as far as I’m concerned, they’re all fair game!
They should redo the seinfeld episode with the letter licking to have to do with Pesach
And don’t forget about dental restorations. They’re either metal, composite/resin plastic or porcelain, and the latter can’t be kashered. All restorations are both milchig and fleishig because people put ‘yad soledes bo’ coffee w/ milk and chicken soup all the time. Any teeth exhibiting decay should be extracted if one is a true ben torah. But don’t go get a denture, because that’ll be the same problem — fabricated from metal and/or plastic, they also absorb taste. It’s a wonder to me that it’s ignored, but I suppose that if we are faced with ignoring it or actually extracting many teeth, we ignore it.
This week, I had this Chassidishe guy as a patient and we were discussing this topic. He was about 35 yrs old and had never had a filling, but I had to put a composite filling in a tooth of his — we joked that his mouth was kosher for Pesach as long as he didn’t eat anything until Pesach.
Leche’ora, this applies to sealants as well.
You know Kof-K openly says unflavored seltzer doesn’t need a hechsher even for pesach? (http://www.kof-k.org/articles/040308030426W-38%20Piskei%20Horav%20Yisroel%20Belsky%20Shlita%20on%20Pesach.pdf)
i have heard that some chassidim buy only live fish for pesach, take ‘em home to the wife so she can kill it and prepare it, with there being no doubt that no chometz came into contact with it. euw.
“(I know chabadnicks peel tomatoes)”
Why????
And Talmudist, after the hot oven treatment for braces on teeth, one must wait 24-hours and then pour boiling water over them and immediately line said braced teeth with aluminum foil.
I think that all Jews should buy stock in Alcoa right before Pesach – it must go up in value after all this foil lining of everything. Then again, it might be considered ‘insider trading’
And to Dale Rosenbach – should we all just have our teeth pulled and gum it for Pesach? Matzoh is pretty crisp….
Shtetl Fabulous,
According to the Shulchan Aruch, you are not allowed to have a non-Jew to your seder.
Tomatoes: Many Lubavitchers will peel all fruits and veggies, including tomatoes. It’s not as hard as it sounds.
Gentiles: According to Shulchan Oruch, you are not allowed to invite a gentile to any yom tov meal. you are not allowed to give them food at all. Shabbos is different.
Seinfeld can’t re-do an episode to do with any REAL aspect of Judaism, the show was about the “Judaism is bagels and whining” or “cultural” crap, whenever it even dealt with anything Jewish. Chametz would have been way too Jewish..
Is that why so many Chabads in vite over people who they know are married to non-Jews or does the Shulchan Oruch harav say differently.
I remember my roommate’s girlfriend (neither Jews) saying “Oh that’s the holiday when you get to eat crackers! It’s so fun.”
…
and constipating.
Hey what’s with all the Lubav bashing?!?!?
frumsatire, they specifically dont invite the non-jewish guy in any way … if they decide to come on their own accord you cant uninvite them, theres another halacha which overrides it
mg+hesh: basically, if there’s a Jew who isn’t going to be by a seder or do something else on yom tov because a shliach won’t invite a non-Jew…
Is it permitted get a yeast infection on Passover?
Is it permitted to get a yeast infection on Passover?
do you need to get a new shaitel for pesach, chas v’sholom you find chometz somewhere in it? seriously, those things cost hundreds or even thousands of $$$
Avi, ew!
I tried to take up a collection to get a new computer for Pesach because I wasn’t sure I could get all the cookies out of my old one. But nobody donated, so I just relied on ‘kol chamira’.
Now I have a real excuse to get a new laptop every year!!
Man my laptop has enough crumbs to bake loaves of bread
Hmm, mine is pretty clean, but I am a bit OCD about that, my car and my laptops are usually very clean…
Same is true for sefira!
http://pooglespeak.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/extra-chumros-for-sefira-to-show-how-frum-you-are/