- Q. Dearest Rabbi. As our family is traveling away for Pesach and we are staying with one of our children, when, if and how, do we have to comply with the ceremony of searching for the chamets, as we do at home every year?
A. The Gemara, Pesachim 6a, discusses whether there is an obligation to check one's property for chametz if one leaves the property before the time of bedikat chametz.
According to Rava, if one leaves prior to thirty days and does not plan on returning to that property until after Pesach, he has no obligation to perform bedikat chametz. If he leaves within thirty days of Pesach, he has an obligation to perform bedikat chametz even if he doesn't plan on returning until after Pesach.
The Gemara states that thirty days was chosen as the cutoff point based on the obligation to begin the study of the laws of Pesach thirty days prior to Pesach. [See Mishna Berurah 436:32, regarding one who is planning on selling the chametz in his home and leaving before Pesach.]
Mori Verabi Horav Hagaon R.M. Feinstein ZT"L notes that the equation between the two laws can be understood based on the idea that thirty days prior to a holiday is considered an extension of the holiday. Therefore, one is specifically obligated to perform bedikat chametz on a property that one vacates during that time, even if he doesn't plan on returning before Pesach.
Rabbi
A. Bartfeld as revised by, Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam,
Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs
Shlit'a
Important Numbers
