Q. Could Horav Miller please revise the following instructions set for people selling their chometz. Is everything correct?
Notice
1. Please read the contract on the reverse side and become familiar with the
transaction.
2. If the contract includes chometz that belongs to someone else, please be sure
that you have received at least verbal authorization from the owner to include
it in this contract.
3. Please be meticulous in checking only those items that you have or
may have. Checking all items indiscriminately does not do the transaction
justice.
4. All items included in the sale should be sealed off and made inaccessible by
locking, taping, tying or erecting a mechitza.
5. Chometz pots, dishes and eating utensils are not sold, but must be secluded
and made inaccessible nonetheless.
6. Chometz which may be in a secluded area of an appliance (e.g. motor housing
of a mixer) is included in the sale.
7. Kitniyos (legumes such as rice, beans, etc.) need not be sold, even though we
do not eat them on pesach.
8. Be aware, that from the time of the sale to the non-Jew, the purchaser has
right of access to any area which is rented to him, or any chometz that is sold
to him and he may take it and use it as he wishes even on Yom Tov. He will owe
you the remainder of the purchase price as will be determined by three
experts after Pesach.
9. Please write legibly, especially your name and address, so that the purchaser
can know who the seller is and where the chometz is located.
A. The following are the changes that Horav Shlomo Miller shlit’a recommends;
On paragraph 2; One should insist when possible on a written authorization.
On 4 and 5; Sealing, locking and taping may not be effective without a mechitza at least ten tefachim height (about a meter), if the chometz is kept on a box, dresser, suitcase or similar, that is by itself less that ten tefachim. Sealing, locking and taping, would work without a mechitza on a room, closet or locker that is more than ten tefochim.
On 8; Needs clarification: Not the remainder of the chometz not taken, rather the amount still owed after the deposit was given. The non-Jew agrees that in case of any disagreement, the matter will be settled by a Jewish Rabbinical court.
The Rov also maintains, that it is indeed better not to write the approximate value of the chometz sold.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a
Important Numbers
