– Q. Re-question 4932 above. My question is that since my family minhag is not to keep chometz gomur (real chometz) even when properly sold as the Rov also mentioned in Horav Miller’s name.
Can I keep that chometz when frozen solid and stored in a special freezer that is also sold and placed In a secluded part of the basement?
A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit”a opinion is that it should not be done, since in fact you are deriving prohibited hana’ah and benefit from the chometz, the reason being that its presence in the freezer keeps the temperature down.
On a similar question (2579) we wrote:
Q. If a family’s minhag is to sell chometz , like macaroni, flour, boxed cereal and cookies, is it okay to keep loaves of bread in a chometz freezer over Pesach as well?
To what we answered: “Poskim mention that there is room to be stringent when including in the sale of chometz to Gentiles chometz gomur or items that are certain to be chometz such as bread and many other baked good. The reason being that there are a number of leniencies involved in the process of the chometz sale and therefore when Biblically prohibited chometz is involved, we should abstain from having it included in that sale. (Maase Rav quoting Hagr’a, Igros Sofrim 48 quoting Rab. Akiva Eiger, Orchos Rabbenu – Pesach: 19 quoting of Chazon Ish, Teshuvos Vehanhogos 1: 309, and others).
There isn’t in regard to Pesach Halacha much difference between loaves of bread and cookies. However, Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that keeping frozen bread or any other chometz in the freezer during Pesach, even when properly marked, stored and sold, will cause one to benefit from it during Pesach, since it requires less energy to keep frozen a full freezer than an emptier one.”
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit'a.
Years ago, we asked our Poseik here in Eretz Yisroel, whether we could leave Ta'aruvos Chometz in our freezer and sell it on Pesach. Our freezer has two shelves and four drawers. The Rav said that we could leave it a drawer, tape it shut and mark it as "Sold to the Goy", and include that in the sale. Last night, I asked him about the S'voro of Rav Miller. He said that even though scientifically, there is a benefit, nobody thinks of the energy saved as benefit and therefore, it is not a benefit that is forbidden. When I asked my wife, she answered that we rent that drawer to the Goy with the Chometz. Therefore, the percentage of benefit of having the Chometz there that causes a saving of energy, the Goy pays for that.
Important Numbers
