Pesach Inspiration and Preparation

we are going to learn about pesach a little bit about significance of pesach and preparation for the cedar a little bit about running the Cedar and mainly will focus on how to prepare your house and the kitchen for Passover and how to Culture Your utensils your appliances and how to make proper decisions which food that you already have is okay to use on Passover and which food needs to have first I would like to thank Mrs Muscat for preparing these folders every year she spends a lot of time on them as well as the office staff for putting them together for printing and uh putting hundreds and hundreds of folders for being distributed all over queens and and Brooklyn so it's very important to realize that that Passover is not only about making our life Difficult about restrictions the idea of Passover is to teach us something about ourselves and about life and to inspire us for the coming year so in addition to just cleaning you also have to remember why we have pesto so where we remember the story of pestic that perhaps our parents told us that the Jewish people were slaves in Egypt and God took us out and when he took us out we were rushed out of mitzrayim so fast that we didn't have a chance to prepare bread and instead we had unleavened bread bread dough was not able to rise that's what we remember and for 40 years the Jewish people walked in the desert and they were supported by by Hashem but the question is why did we have to go into slavery to begin with and why did we need to go out of Egypt so fast why if we were there already for 210 years why couldn't we wait another couple hours to eat nice breakfast and the answer to this question is going to tell us what is Passover for us now and the simple answer is that Hashem needed a very strong Nation a nation that's going to survive for thousands of years we are here already three and a half thousand years since the Exodus and it's all thanks to the events in Egypt and what happened in the desert because um as we know that later the the the the secularists told us that the world functions on the survival of the fittest but really it doesn't really we know there is a merciful kind God who supports the poor and the weak and therefore you can be weak and poor and it can still survive so we see that the Jewish people despite being small in number they survived but that is only in physical in physical world you might be weak but you'll survive anyway if you rely on God because you have someone who is stronger than any strong man but spiritually it's not like that spiritually really you have to put in effort because all external events depend on Hashem he decides what's going to be he decides who is going to get what and therefore we don't have to worry what's going to be with our physical life what's going to be with our paramasa and so on through the events of Egypt and the ten plagues and the Miracles and the desert 40 years without agriculture without economy we survived and we have been surviving for thousands of years without having our country without having our own Army what we had in the last 70 years is is an anomaly for most of the Jewish life we have been outside of our country without any legal protection and we still survive so physically Hashem takes care of us however spiritually we say everything is in the hands of God the only thing that God doesn't control is our moral choices which we call fear of Heaven that when you are aware that somebody is watching me whether I am responsible I have to give an answer to someone then I behave differently when I know there is a camera watching me I will behave more honorably and therefore this idea that I recognize that there is God and I'm willing to lead my life according to that understanding that is what we call fear of Heaven meaning it's awareness that there is someone greater than I who created me and who is in charge of my life and who will judge me later so in this area we do say that it's up to you you have to put in effort you have to make your own decisions and therefore Hashem wanted to give this initial like the boot camp to see who is capable of surviving in the real world among the 70 wolves and because of that we had to go through the the 210 years of Egyptian Exile and we had to go through the the events in the desert and as we see in the homage in the Torah the Jewish people were selected it was like a natural selection the the process repeated itself again and again and it's compared Egypt is compared to a Melting Pot not the American Melting Pot but the Melting Pot where you put in the metal in its raw state from the ground mixed with other materials minerals dirt and when you melt it and you extract just the pure metal and then you can go through this process again and again until you get a hundred percent pure pure gold or whatever uh metal you are purifying so that is what um Egypt is called Egypt is called an iron Crucible where you melt things to purify them and Hashem purified us through it now why did we have to go through the persecution and and a lot of killings throughout that period of time and throughout the rest of the Jewish history exactly for this reason because the closer we get to mashiach the closer we get to the the Pinnacle the ultimate um the more we're being tested the the the harder the tests are because the closer we come to mashiach the closer we come to the deadline the less time we have to achieve the goal of the world and that is to to to show Hashem our devotion commitment and to teach the whole world about what is the truth about the fact that those that follow God's will are rewarded and those that don't are punished and because we have less and less time now more has to be packed in that's why uh coming close to the days of machines compared coming close to shabbat as we come close to shabbat things start to speed up people start moving faster because we have to accomplish so much and we have less and less time so this process is repeating itself and therefore we have to accept any um difficulty any test happily because we understand that if we pass this test we're going to go to the next level then we're going to go to the semi-finals and finally to the the playoffs because we are the ones that survived out of all the generations so the the Jewish people that are here now are the strongest and a lot depends on us so the idea of Egypt is exactly this that through remembering that we were One slaves and now we are free and God took us out we are strengthening ourselves our our trust in Hashem and in ourselves that life has purpose there is a boss there is an owner to the world and he expects something from us and he's there to help us any physical challenge he's going to take here like with the Clouds Of Glory that that made the path smooth in front of us with man the food free food coming to us and we had protection from the rain and from the Sun and from the enemies so too if we focus on what's up to us doing the right thing then then Hashem is going to take care of everything else he's going to take care of our enemies abroad and within he's going to take care of our paranasa and our health everything will be taken care of what we need to focus on is spirituality and that is the idea of matzah matzah is opposed to rames represents spirituality as opposed to physicality if you notice the the in it they both have letter um men in it and the only difference is that matsah has a hey and Hamed has a head and letter hay and head are very similar as well head is just like a house it has two walls and a roof and hey it has one wall and the roof but the the second leg doesn't reach the top there's a space in between just that little space one dot you take one dot away from head it turns into a hay so we say that the letterhead represents the physical world it's like the house something solid something that we can look at and feel protected by it whereas letter hey is spiritual and even in the pronunciation head we have to it's a gutter letter where where we we have to put in effort whereas hey is Just Breath we just need to breathe out and that's the letter that's more spiritual so matsah is this the is represents spirituality represents physicality like the the word Homer materialism also starts with the letter h so on pesach we are reminded that we should not focus on hamets we should not focus on the physical we should rather focus on the spiritual and we remind ourselves that don't worry about how are things going to be in the physical world if we're not putting in effort because we remind ourselves about the ten plagues about Hashem being in control of all nature about this pleading Over the Sea which cannot be explained with physical laws Hashem taking care of all our needs for 40 years three million people and then we are ready to take on the world but not with our muscles not with our even degrees and brains and Banks rather with only our heart only with our moral choices that's the idea of Passover and therefore besides cleaning which we will focus on today besides that you have to also prepare your mind and heart and practically it's important to learn about Passover it's important to learn about Judaism in general about God in general but practically it's also important to prepare yourself for the Passover said Passover seder is not the time to rest from the the last few weeks of hard work Passover say there is a time to focus on the lessons of the Haggadah and to actually read the Haggadah and to read it in a language that you can understand and to inspire ourselves and others at the table the main purpose for Passover say there is to educate children and by children we mean either in age or in their knowledge which means if anybody is not so knowledgeable the the focus of Passover say there is to in to give them that knowledge and inspiration it's not a time to focus on food it's not a time to focus on very elaborate deep divertora just simple explanation and hagada has it if you just read the Haggadah and pay attention and understand you will be inspired the the problem that happens is that first of all many people are tired because they worked for many days without sleeping much the the the the 24 hours before PESA are the most difficult children are also tired men are also tired there are many guests and there is a balagan and nobody can concentrate on the hagada another problem is that people often come into the said they're hungry and come from work and they don't have patience and they're starving and they cannot sit through the Haggadah so just some preparation will resolve all these issues number one it's important if at all possible either to take off that day the day before Passover which is Wednesday um or if that's not possible at least take a half a day off work until midday 12 1 o'clock and then come home so that you can rest you can rest take a nap tell your children to go take a nap take your tell your husband to go take the take a nap so that you have strength to survive the said happily the second thing is to eat something even though we're not supposed to eat the whole meal before the center but you can eat anything as long as it's not a whole meal and so Before Sunset eat something not only that we have accustomed to eat something after we made kidush it's a good idea to eat something some people have accustomed to eat rice right after we drink the first cup and instead of washing hands for carpas they just sit down they relax they eat some rice and then they continue with the setter you make the blessing for Rice before and after and then you go wash your hands or we the requirements we eat an egg and a whole egg and we eat a whole egg to commemorate the the destruction of betamic Dash because right now we're sitting in America and we're not in Jerusalem we're not in betamic dash so with an egg and an egg is a is a good way to calm your hunger pangs and and to give you that extra uh time and half an hour one hour so that you you you don't have to say when are we gonna eat and therefore it's a good idea to cook a few dozen eggs because you need it for two for two days and distribute these eggs to every person at the beginning of the centers and pause after kedush let everyone enjoy if someone is very hungry and they want to eat two eggs let them to eat two eggs as well this was the custom of audio yourself as well he used to eat rice and he would tell everyone to eat rice after Kiddush again so that they can sit and read the haggad and talk about it especially if you have children it's important to pay attention to them and they often coming from school or kindergarten they have a lot to share and they're excited they want to sing songs they don't want just to rush through the haggad in Hebrew which they don't understand and most of the people don't understand and then just rush into the into the food they want to enjoy the songs and and the stories now the third thing that can help us is to take time the day before Passover to prepare for the center by preparing portions of matzah and maroon some people they figured out that if you have a food scale or postal scale and you cover it with plastic that it should be clean and you pre-measure matzah and you pre-measure romaine lettuce and you put it in in plastic bags and you prepare enough for every person of the seller for two days you can distribute them at the beginning and then the head of the family doesn't have to break pieces of matzah and estimate it and then there's going to be an argument you gave me too little you gave me too much I don't want to eat so much give me more you already give every person three bags of matzah and two bags of romaine lettuce because we eat matzah three times one for at the beginning when we wash hands for matzah once for the sandwich and once for half a comment so you need three bags times two days that means six bags will speak about the the measurement how much and two bags of romaine lettuce for each day this way it also saves you not only time during the Saturday but also saves you money because often you give out of caution you give too much and then people end up eating a lot it's difficult and you have to buy pre-checked Romaine lettuces expensive and months is expensive why waste your money so instead pre-measure everything and save yourself time during the setter because there is no distribution time required as soon as the head of the family makes the blessing everyone takes their bag and eats right away but for that if you need a postal scale and you need maybe an hour or two to actually prepare everything because we only need whole matzah for the head of the table who is going to make the blessing on it hamotzilla haminares everyone else is going to get broken matzah anyway after the the head of the family breaks it so that's why it's not a problem that they have broken matzah as long as there is a whole Mata at the head of the table it's enough everyone fulfills their Mitzvah like that so now um let us go quickly through the center and speak about the measurements um there are three kinds of matzah that's available that we can use for the pestic said we're not speaking about the egg matzah because egg matzah cannot be used for the past success but besides Eggman said there are three kinds of matzah and that is regular Mata which we call manishevitz matzah it can come from any other company but it's regular Mata which we're not supposed to use for the pessic center we can use this monster for the remainder of pesach for lunches as well as holama and the last days but for the two nights we're supposed to use shimura matsa and there are two kinds of shimura matsa one is hand matzah that is round and one is square matzah and that is machine matzah both of these matsort are permitted for the Passover Seder is generally two times cheaper than the hand matzah so someone for whom it's hard to pay for the handmans that they can buy machine just make sure it says the word shimura on it but someone who can't afford it's preferable to to have hand matsa uh for the said which hand matai you buy it doesn't matter as long as it has all of them are good whether you buy it for 12.99 a pound or you buy it for sixty dollars a pound doesn't matter um all of them are Kosher as long as it says handmade and it has a reliable like OU or badats or any other it's good you don't have to um buy the most expensive the reason why people buy more expensive Masa is for two reasons either they follow personal stringencies which you don't have to unless you are aware of them and you accept them upon it yourself voluntarily you don't have to follow them and number two is because they want thin matzah if it's hard for you to chew regular massage then maybe you should buy for yourself uh one pack of thin matzah specifically for the Seder but only for those that it actually is difficult for most people that I know they don't have a problem eating and again if you pre-measure you'll find out that it's not so much you don't have to eat so much of matzah and and um if not necessary don't spend extra money to buy thin matzah regular masa is as kosher now yeah I have a question do we have to wash our hands every time we eat Mata we we wash hands twice by the seated one without a blessing for carpass for the salary in salt water and once for matzah that's it unless you your hands are dirty then you wash without a blessing if you let's say you go to the bathroom you wash again but without the blessing otherwise you don't have to wash another time they've the day of the Seder of the night of the city could we eat egg macro yes the day before Passover we're not allowed to eat regular matzah but we can eat yes now what is the proper amount of this matter whether you have machines or hand shimura matsa it doesn't matter but what is the amount of his side every person must eat the volume of an olive but not a regular olive but very large the largest Olive that you can find the volume of it and the head of the family should eat two of those volumes so we'll speak about everyone else for the head of the table just make double the size so according to the most stringent opinion it is 27 grams or one ounce if someone is very healthy and loves matzah and can eat a lot of it that's the size they should use however if you find it difficult you can use 20 grams 20 grams of matzah then there is another opinion that you can rely on and that is 18 grams and for somebody who finds it very difficult you can use 14 grams which means any child under Bar Mitzvah you don't have to give them 28 grams you don't have to give them 20 or 18 you can give them 14 grams of matzah and that's enough for elderly or sick people who cannot eat even 14 grams you can give them 11 grams that is the bare minimum but we recommend that every person should try to eat 20 grams that is the the average 20 grams which means you would measure 20 grams times three for each person times two days which means you would basically prepare six bags of 20 grams each it may be a lot of time before Passover but it's gonna save you a lot of money on pesach and a lot of time on peso and plus a lot of worry because people often worry did I eat enough was did I fulfill my Mitzvah this way you don't have to worry you're confident that I ate enough sorry so 20 grams um times three meaning 60 grams for for the day for each day yes yes 60 grams um times two is 120 grams and that's how you uh can calculate how much matzah to buy how many guests you have yes the head of the household should eat the double amount so if for example you use the the minimum amount which is let's say 14 grams then the head of the household if he eats 28 grams then he'll fulfill not only a full ounce according to the most strict opinion but he'll also fulfill two ounces I'm sorry not two ounces two egg two Olive volumes according to the more lenient opinion so we would recommend that the head of the household eat 28 grams to fulfill to Olive volumes two quezides according to more linear opinion if they can they should do 27 times 2 54 but that might be too much you can measure and see if they can handle it but if not just 28 grams for the head of the family times three and for everyone else just 20 grams times three and if it's difficult 14 grams times three that's why it's very difficult to estimate because it depends on the thickness of the matzah every box every company produces different amounts some have six months old per pound so you divide the pound into six and plus each Masa might be different thickness different size some have seven muscles some have eight some have nine up to ten Masood per pound and so you might have to eat a whole matzah if it's very thin you might have to eat half or two-thirds or one third so it's very difficult if you don't measure that's why it makes it very difficult if you have to estimate at least if you don't have time to measure at least open one box and measure one amount so that you know how much is it you know approximately what it is and and then you'll know is that half is it a third a quarter two-thirds a whole matzah depending which massage you buy yes am I required to have Sharon Master my husband I'm not hosting the Seder as long as when you go to the center you will have shmura matzah the rest of the time you don't have to eat yes correct I have a guest over you can buy if you want if I'm not you're not required if you want just in case to be on the safe side you can buy one box of machine which is kosher according to us and according to some it's even ideal for example German Jews they only eat machine because they say machines don't make mistakes and therefore they trust a machine more you don't have to worry about hands not being washed you don't have to worry about their sweat falling in and so on and so forth but uh also the machines is more convenient because it's all even in thickness and same size and same weight and it's baked evenly so you don't have any burnt matzah and it's easier to deal with so again if you want to save money or make it more convenient you're allowed to but again ideally if someone can they should have hand shmuramazza for the said no when we eat matzah by the cedar we have to lean and so we eat matzah three times we have to lean three times and when we drink wine on the cedar we have to lean on your left side now leaning no no always lean on the left side yeah where your heart is when you lean you cannot lean on um air you have to lean on something either you have to sit sideways and lean on the table or you have to sit backwards and lean on the back of your chair or you have to put your chair sideways and lean on the back of the chair sideways or if you have armchair you can lean on the on the on the arm of the chair either yeah you cannot be in the air you have to either lean on the table and it's not your head that has to lean it's your body the head can stay straight because you have to be able to drink and and eat that it shouldn't spill so your head can stay straight but your body leans either on the table or on the chair but you cannot lean back on the chair you have to sit sideways and lean on your side you can lean on someone else as well uh if you wanted to make it more comfortable for them you can put a pillow on their lap and lean on them yes but inform them beforehand okay so next is wine ideally wine for the setter should be red wine it should be alcoholic it should be not pasteurized which we call nutmegal and ideally it should be without added sugar that's the ideal wine but if it's not available or circumstances are such that person cannot use it for example person cannot handle um wine so they can use grape juice if person is for some reason let's say cannot find red wine or is allergic to red wine let's say then he can use white wine um so it can be white wine it can be grape juice if a person can't find wine without sugar added it's okay with sugar added and if he cannot find wine that is not pasteurized or if they have either non-jews or Jewish people who don't keep Shabbat they cannot use non-pasteurized wine and therefore pasteurize wine becomes the choice so again ideally it should be red alcoholic not pasteurized and no sugar added Wine Not grape juice so we get like a three percent of five percent yes yes yes so even three percent even three percent is okay if for example cadm wines they have a rule that any 750 milliliter cadm wine is pasteurized and any litter and a half had them wine in a glass bottle is uh not me bushao so if you need not me which I'll buy that and also if you need me Rochelle don't buy that juices and wines are Kosher for passover yes in general all wines and grape juices are Kosher because it's just grapes just make sure it's made from grapes because there are some wines that are cold wines but they're not wine it can be made from Pomegranate can be made from Plum and apples other things just make sure it's made from grape grapes if it has let's say peach flavor that's okay it's just the flavor but it's not made from peaches it's made from grapes yes ideally yes yes now when we drink wine we have to drink from a cup that can contain three ounces minimum which means we cannot use a tiny cup cannot use a shot glass it has to be a cup that can hold three or more ounces or 86 milliliters or 86 grams of grape juice or wine if your cup is bigger that's fine but the rule is that ideally you should drink the whole cup but you fulfill your Mitzvah if you drink majority if you cannot drink because of too much sugar or too much alcohol then it's okay if you have a three ounce cup it's okay to drink just two ounces and the then you just refill it now you have to make sure that um it is grape juice or wine that has majority of wine or grape juice meaning you can dilute your wine and grape juice but you still have to make sure that 51 is grape juice so if you use light cadm grape juice that's okay but you cannot add any more water to it there is a light cadm grape juice where they mix it with water already to reduce calories and they put sugar substitute instead it still tastes sweet but it doesn't have so much sugar you can use it for somebody who cannot handle too much sugar but don't add any more water if you use regular cadm grape juice you can still add one-third water if you need ideally you shouldn't but if you have someone who cannot handle too much sugar you can put two ounces of grape juice and one ounce of water and out of that mixture they only need to drink two ounces so they end up drinking maybe only an ounce and a half of grape juice times four they only end up drinking throughout the whole night only six ounces which is even less than a cup of grape juice which has three ounces but we can only we should drink if you need you can only drink majority of the cup except for the last cup the last cup the fourth cup you should drink the whole cup because you can only say that after bracha al-hage if you drank three ounces so when we drink wine we need to lean all four cups if you forget to lean either for matzah or um uh why you have to eat again or drink again you forget to lean yes that's why you should remind everyone before making the blessing before making kidush remind everyone you have to lean and before saying Hamot SI remind everyone to lean for the matzah um same for africomen and for all other cups of wine now in order to help yourself you should find the smallest cups that you have as close to three ounces as possible 3.2 3.5 4 ounces is good but don't get five six seven eight ounce because then you'll have to again you'll waste a lot of wine and that's money and you will have to drink more and then you'll either become drunk more and or you'll you'll have sugar rush or your children will be wild so use the smallest cup possible if you have those cups and the way to measure it either by what it says on a box or you put it that cup on the on the scale you set it to zero and then you add water to it and you continue adding water and you see if three ounces fit if three ounces fit good or you can continue pouring until the top and you see how much the cup fits if the cup fits four good anyway the cup should be more than three ounces because you usually don't fill the cup till the top so you let a little few millimeters on top to be uh empty and therefore the cup should ideally have 3.2 3.5 ounces so that that empty space with it it's only going to be three ounces so if the cup is four ounces between three and a half to four that's the ideal this way you can let some space on top if you don't have the such cups at home you should go to a store uh housewares or Amazing Savings and they do have these cups um it's a good idea to buy these cups and then save them for next year this way you don't have to go through this every year you'll always have a set of proper sized cups for all the guests for for future um ideally they should be real cops whether made from glass or metal but not disposable if you don't have a choice and disposable is all you have then you can use disposable but ideally it should be something honorable you pour the wine and it pours out to all the cups and those three ounces usually not you can measure them if you have cups that are three ounces that's good but if not then you can't use it yeah I know the regular like disposable hiccups they're only two ounces that's not enough right yes it has to be either three ounces or 86 millimeters now the ones no they have all kinds they have glass they have nice glass ones that are either three or four or five ounces they have very various kinds now um let's continue um besides eating the the matzah at the beginning of the said it's also important not to forget and this is the the part that most people have hard time with is that AFI common is also required meaning africomen is the last matzah that we eat for the one that we hid and then we bring it out and we divide it among people of course that matzah that we hit is not going to be enough for everyone you will have to give people their pre-measured bag or give them another piece of any other matzah from the box and in addition give them a piece of Alfie comment they should eat part of that of a common if if they want to save a part for good luck for future they can but they cannot save the whole thing because they have to eat part of it and in addition to that they have to eat the rest of the measured matzah for them because the africomen also has to be an olive volume now if for some reason you you lost half a common or the children hit it and they don't want to give it back to you or they ask for high price you can use any other matzah for africomen you take any other masan you designate it as African um now let's continue to maror maror is um a bitter herb so the talmud lists a few different kinds of bitter herbs but it recommends that we should use romaine lettuce and the reason is because romaine lettuce reminds us of our life in Egypt at the beginning romaine lettuce is sweet and then as it matures it becomes bitter just like the the Jewish people were treated first well and then they were enslaved so even though now romaine lettuce tastes not bitter but because if it stayed in the ground it would turn bitter it's enough doesn't it actually have to be bitter now Ashkenazi use horseradish raw not pickled not uh salted but for us that's not good we have to use romaine lettuce if you want to add horseradish just for Taste and and for the sharpness and and to cry a little bit you can but again your main marour has to be romaine lettuce how much of it also an olive size which is happens to be a whole ounce so it's also good to pre-measure romaine lettuce and you have to pre-measure 27 grams or one ounce times 2 because you need one ounce for more and one ounce for quarter for the sandwich times two days so you basically need four bags per person matzah you need six bags per person my daughter you need two uh four bags per person when we eat maror we don't lean but from wine and matzah we do okay um for women especially it's important to participate in the hagada as well it's not enough that the head of the household is reading if you go to the kitchen and you don't hear what he's saying then you have to read it for yourself and therefore if a woman knows that she needs to leave to take care of the baby or to go to the kitchen she can read from her own hagada go ahead read it couple Pages ahead then go take care of whatever needs to be done then come back and continue reading uh and catch up where you are you you you every person needs to either hear the hagada or to read it themselves now let us go to the next section and that is um food for Passover now according to sephardim the regular is that we can eat kidney OD there are various customs in different communities for example the original buhari custom was only to eat rice but not other kidney now many buharians are changing to the standard Safari custom and to allow kidney art ideally such a person should do um and we have done with Ahmed for hundreds of students and their families in the past years if someone didn't do it yet and they want to eat kidney OD they should ideally or the head of the household should do and for Rice we can use any rice that is not enriched which means you look at the ingredients it should only say rice it should not list any vitamins you look at the nutritional panel and it should say um that most vitamins are zero if there is a little bit of iron it's okay but usually unenriched rice most vitamins is zero and it shouldn't say on the package enriched the word enriched and practically we have our koku horiz whether it's in a red package or yellow package which is good it's not enriched and you usually basmati rice or Jasmine rice is also not enriched they're also okay in addition you have to check rice white rice we have to check once brown rice and any other kidney out we have to check three times so um if you if you have any kind of white rice you just check it a few grains at a time quickly make sure there is nothing there besides rice and if you have brown rice you have to watch out more carefully because the color is similar to wheat or other grains and you have to check it three times when you check rice and see is it you can't check and look how it has to be on what what is the procedure you put rice on a big plate or or the white uh tablecloth try try yeah for sure yeah and uh you put it in one pile on one side and you just go with your hand little by little until you go through not one grain at a time a few you know a whole uh Pinch at the time and you just scan it lentils no how many how many guys no those are hummus those you cannot use General yeah if you want to check them for bugs you can do that yes yes uh similarly if you eat any other kidney odd beans lentils buckwheat quinoa all these we also have to check similar way but you have to check them three times you have to be especially careful with buckwheat because it's very dirty with other grains and so it may take you more than three times to finally until the last time you go through it you don't find any foreign material only buckwheat therefore generally buckwheat is not recommended because you do find a lot of other grains in it okay now your folders also have a a page with importance my name that that lists the the time to do the search for hamads on Tuesday night um which is about 7 40 PM or later uh the time to eat comets for the last time in the morning and that is about 10 20 a.m on Wednesday morning after that you cannot eat hummus anymore you can still have it for your animals or to sell it and you have to get rid of hummus to burn it or to sell it before 11 40 am on Wednesday April 5th it this page also has the blessing for the search and as well as instructions how to search and the statement that we say after we search we nullify the comments it's called bitul James you have to do it twice once at night after the search is complete and once um in the morning after you burn your comments it also has times for candle lining and it also reminds you to do a rooftop Shilling on the other side because Shabbat follows Yom Tov we need to prepare food it's on the same page on the other side of the page the blue one on the other side yeah and uh since we cannot cook on Yom Tov for Shabbat unless we started cooking on a weekday that's why we take a hard-boiled egg and we say this is for Shabbat and we take one matsa so that we have a cooked food and a baked food and we say the blessing the blessing is on this page and we set it aside and we say this is the beginning of our preparing for Shabbat and we'll continue preparing for Shabbat on Friday and then on Friday afternoon you can cook and it also allows you to light candles Friday before Shabbat um what size should it be for the April you just take regular machine matzah one machine matzah one one slice no and then on Shabbat you eat it you don't have to eat it all by yourself you divide it you cut the egg you you give the egg any time on Shabbat for example sheet because it's a matzah so you can wash on it and you eat it as bread okay um also we have to make sure we sell our hamets for that we have to isolate it in our kitchen or basement or garage anywhere you want um you can leave it in the refrigerator or freezer but you have to put it on a bag you shouldn't get mixed and mark it on a shelf a separate shelf or part of the Shelf both freezer and and the refrigerator or cabinets anything that you are not planning to use on Passover that part of the kitchen you can just cover seal a mark and sell this way you don't have to clean you don't have to check any cabinets that you don't need for Passover don't bother cleaning just sell them however things that you are planning to use on Passover you have to clean very well to make sure there is no crumbs of hummus if it has to do with food any other part of the house the way we don't eat it's enough just to do the general inspection to make sure there is no Olive size of hummus there for example if you just checking your your clothing drawers your closets it's enough just to make sure you don't have any hummus cheer size or bigger anything that you might be tempted to eat any cookie candy packaged Goods that's all you're searching so the rest of your house should be very quick uh bedrooms bathrooms hallways closets all of that can be done very quick just go through everything Pockets knapsacks bags and uh as long as there's no actual comments there it's fine you don't have to vacuum you don't have to wash because you're not eating there however in the kitchen that's another story that's where we will focus majority of our effort because Hamid is forbidden even a tiny bit we have to make sure that there is not even a crumb not even a residue not even a an absorption of comets in our utensils and so how do we do that now we turn to the general PESA cleaning notes and again it starts by telling you that any utensils that you don't need for Passover just pack them away and include them in a sale we don't sell utensils but we do sell any comments that is uh on them or stuck to them now dish towels hand towels and tablecloths anything that can go to the washing machine with detergent after the wash it becomes kosher for Passover yeah yes same with clothing for example if you don't want to go through all the pockets of your clothes if you give it to cleaners or you put it in laundry it's going to become kosher same with children knapsacks if they are washable you just put them in a washing machine and with detergent and then you don't have to check them or anyway since children don't have school on Passover you can just put them in the closet and sell them together with your comets this way you don't have to clean your children's knapsacks next um vacuum cleaner don't forget to empty the bag before pesach and throw it out so that you don't have all the hummus that you vacuumed in one place garbage cans usually they're dirty so wash them before Passover and make sure you throw out the garbage bag before Passover if there is any comments there that you put before PESA make sure you throw it out before 11 40 am after 11 40 a.m on Wednesday we can eat other Foods including egg matzo but we cannot eat regular mats and of course we cannot eat hamets anymore any comments that we forgot to sell will become forbidden after Passover that's why we have to remember to do the uh the sale of comments now we go to page R8 and we speak about how to caution your appliances and utensils first we'll start with the oven if your oven has self-cleaning feature just run the self-cleaning cycle and the oven is going to become kosher not only that anything that you put in that oven for the self-cleaning cycle will also become kosher whether it is the stove grates or barbecue grates or sticks or stainless steel pots or cast iron pots anything you put in the oven for self-cleaning a cycle afterwards it's all going to become kosher all you need to do is just rinse it from the the suit the Ash and it's good however be careful not to put anything aluminum anything plastic anything non-stick coating because it's going to melt and get ruined if you don't have a self-cleaning oven then you actually have to wash it first with oven cleaner to make sure there is no residue of food not on the bottom of it not on walls not on the door and not on the racks and then you set it on the highest flame on highest temperature for one hour next we go to the microwave um you wash it very well with soap and sponge microwaves are usually dirty because food splatters all over you have to wash all surfaces the door the the top the bottom or walls including the the the plate after it's sparkling clean then you put a glass bowl of water in it and you run the microwave until the water starts boiling and fills the whole microwave with Steam the glass tray because it's glass it's enough just to wash it now we go to page R9 stove top if it's gas stove then you have three options either you put them into the self-cleaning oven and it's going to become good or you put a piece of aluminum foil flat piece like this size on top of the burner the the grate you turn it on the highest for two three minutes and that's it then you move it to the next one and again turn it on the highest and the heat that's going to be there it's going to burn all the food residue that's there and like this you do for each one of the burners and that's enough it does ruin my oven can I put it on the highest and then put the grates inside for an hour no in such a case just do this the the only the self-cleaning option helps you to cut your other things uh for grades then just put the foil and the third option is after you clean them to put the grates into your sink and you can do it at the same time as you're cutting the sink the way we cut your the sink is also to wash it with soap and then just pour boiling water so while you're pouring boiling water on it you can put your grates in there as well and pour boiling water on on both of them when you put the aluminum foil on top of it you need to re put aluminum foil after you burn it through or it's fine no that's it once you put aluminum foil on top the fire creates the heat that's going to burn everything and then you remove it and you can you start using it for PESA next is um the burners themselves you don't have to worry about because not the parts are not the food touches them uh if you see that they have food residue then take off that plate and wash it otherwise it's okay um the the surface of the stove we consider not Kosher because throughout the year both milk spills there and meat spills there and for pesach we have a problem with hamets spilling there as well so any food that falls on the stove top and it's hot we don't use um some people cover the stove top with aluminum foil that's going to help you for PESA because it's gonna cover it from hummus but if milk and meat spills there again you'll have a problem because you have a mixture of meat and milk on the same surface now we go to electric stovetop electric stovetop is is easier because it heats up to Red Hot and it burns everything all you need to do is just turn it on the highest until it becomes red hot and it's ready if you have glass top stove all you need to do is just wash it with soap and sponge once it's clean it's good because again for sephardium glass doesn't absorb and therefore it's always kosher as long as it's clean that's what we do for our utensils if you have glass cups or plates you can use them for Passover just wash them with soap if you have glass containers with plastic covers you can use them for Passover by washing both just make sure you don't put the cover on if the food is hot make sure the food cools down a little bit and then you can use it for food next is um Plata electric hot plate or a black these things are usually dirty so you have to wash it very well and scrub it with soap and sponge and even afterwards you have to cover it with aluminum foil and make sure whenever you use a black or a hot plate on Passover it's always covered with aluminum foil if one layer rips cover it with another layer okay now dishwasher just make sure it doesn't have any food residue and run one cycle with soap detergent and hot water and after that cycle you can use it for PESA Cinque already spoke about just wash it with soap and pour boiling water on the bottom yes cycle with like all my glass tops at the same time and also for yes once you're running an empty cycle for the dishwasher you might as well put your um clean pass a clean glass dishes on cups and that will prepare them for pesach as well pots in the oven when you clean yes in the cleaning self self cleaning cycle in the oven you can put all your pots and they will become Kosher for PESA now for for counters um there are a few options some people cover them it's not required to cover them if you do one of the uh next two options the the the the first option is to wash it with soap and sponge and then pour boiling water on it that may work for uh Granite counters or quartz counters but it might ruin wooden counters or formica counters so once you wash your counters with soap and pour boiling water you don't have to cover them you can use them on PESA and you can even put hot food on them directly however if you don't want to deal with boiling water you can use the option three which is wash your counters with soap and sponge very well and then you can use them on Passover for your pots pans plates and cutting boards but just don't put your food directly on the counter as long as you put your food on plates or cutting boards or they're in the pot it's okay so in in in in times of need that's all you need to do for the counter just wash it with soap and and and always put food on something else yes right anything glass just wash it and it's going to be good the next um thing is hot water urn hot water earn since it was always used for water it's essentially kosher just perhaps you touched it with dirty hands so wash it on the outside with soap rinse it on the inside and it's good unless you you put Bread on top to warm up if you put bread on top then it's better not to use that um hot water urn otherwise whether it's a handheld urn or a Big Urn that you use for Shabbat both of them can just be washed and used on PESA ashkenaz as well as long as you know it's clean because even fashionism if a utensil was never used for hamets it was always used for water then it is kosher confused because I know a glass I can't do certain things yes yes I'm just looking for what you were saying before about the plastic the glass containers or the plastic covers if the cover is completely plastic you can just wash it well and then yes the plastic cover you wash it well and just don't use it for hot food which means if you want to put this container in the microwave don't put the cover on put a plate on it or or plastic and only once the food cools down then you can cover it now for utensils anything that is stainless steel or aluminum or silver we can crusher by boiling it so the way we do it is first we wait 24 hours since the last time we used it for hot food and then we drop it into boiling water if the utensil is very big like a big pot and we cannot immerse it in boiling water then we have to boil water in it itself we fill it up till the top we wait until it boils and we let the water spill over either by dropping a hot stone a hot object or by shaking it a little bit allowing the water to spill over and we take the cover and immerse it and turn it until the whole cover is caution anything that is nonstick we don't kosher porcelain dishes we don't Kasha ceramic we don't cash a plastic we don't Kasha so either stainless steel aluminum but again it cannot have non-stick cover many aluminum things they have nonstick cover that nonstick cover is like plastic and therefore we cannot crush it glass as we said any kind of glass we can just wash and glass is either Pyrex Crystal and Corel Corel plates are considered glass and they can just be washed with soap um now some things we cannot culture with boiling water rather we need to actually burn it in Fire and that is things that were not used with any liquid not with oil not with water but they were used directly for example grills sometimes people put not only meat but they also put bread there to toast and therefore those grates cannot be used on pestic unless we either put them in a self-cleaning oven or we get new ones or you cover them with coals on both sides you cover them with hot coals and that will burn them um if you cannot do it then it's better not to use it on Passover okay things that are not used for hot hamets during the year they don't need to be cautioned only washed for example refrigerator and freezer you don't need to cover it don't need to hush it just wash it all the shelves and walls and they will gonna be good same with our tables tables we usually don't put comets directly on it hot so just wash the table and that's it plus we use a table cover on it plastic or even cloth that's enough if you want to eat directly on the table just wash it with soap just like with the counter and don't put food directly on it always use plates similarly for child's high chair and table just wash it with soap because we don't put hot boiling food for the child anyway you don't have to pour water because it never absorbed non-kosher food in it same for children's plates and bodies if if you have bottles spoons plates for your children we usually don't put hot food in them anyway and therefore even if they're plastic just just wash them with soap if you know that you your child is is older and you do put hot food or you put his plate in a microwave and it heats up then you do need to crush it and if it's plastic you can't but normal circumstances whether it's uh baby cereal baby food whatever regular food you give them it's usually not hot similarly Kiddush cups Kiddush cup that we use throughout the year we only use it for wine or grape juice and therefore it's kosher you just need to wash it with soap and you can use it for Passover same for dentures salt shakers and toothbrushes um you can just wash it with soap and it's good for to the brush it's recommended to get a new toothbrush but someone cannot then they can just wash it with soap okay certain appliances we don't use on pesto because it's impossible to cut them properly and that is a toaster whether it is a toaster for bread with slots or it's a toaster oven we don't cash them and mixer whether it is a handheld mixer or a standing mixer for for that we use for making dough cakes um we don't culture them because as we mix flour the flour flies all over enters the in inside of it and then opesa as we're gonna use it the flower is going to descend yes if you need it for Passover yeah you need to get a new mixer again even if you change the beaters or you boil them it's not going to help because inside the the the mixer you might have flour yes [Music] no because baking sheet is used dry on dry and therefore boiling water is not going to help it needs to be heated to high temperature and heating it to tight temperature is going to ruin it because it has non-stick cover so either get a new one if you cannot get a new one you can put it on the highest clean it well put it on the highest and then always line it with aluminum foil or parchment paper preferably aluminum foil and then on top of it parchment paper um so that in case it rips you have the second layer either well anyway if you have electric toothbrush for Shabbat or Yom Tov you're not going to be able to use it and you have five days like that in PESA so it makes sense to get a standard toothbrush okay next is medicine cabinet for medicines that have no taste rather they are pills or tablets and their medicine they don't have to be kosher for Passover and they don't have to be kosher throughout the year again they have to be pills or tablets that you swallow not chewable not liquid but tablets or pill pills that you swallow they don't have to be kosher and only if they are medicine if it's a vitamin then it's considered like food supplement and therefore we treat it as food and you have to make sure it doesn't have any ingredients of the five grains wheat barley oats spelled all right and um preferably it should be on one of the lists that have a kosher for Passover vitamins but for sephardium are not such a problem and therefore as long as you don't have any derivatives of those five it's recommended to at least look that it shouldn't have them directly it shouldn't say any mention of it and it should be gluten free if necessary you can rely on that okay that's a good point now all other products whether they're cleaning products whether they are personal hygiene products hair products creams makeup perfume or um toothbrush toothpaste or mouthwash anything that is not edible to a dog can be used on Passover ideally if you have everything with hashgaka that's that's better of course but if not you don't have to get anything different from cleaning agents soap shampoo including your your um mouthwash toothpaste creams any any um make up all of that can be used because if you notice most things that we use have other chemicals have preservatives have fragrances which make it inedible not only humans but we make it inedible to even a dog so therefore usually they're all okay unless you know that you bought a special organic natural kind that is edible doesn't have any chemicals no preservatives nothing nothing or something homemade let's say you made a scrub from oats at home and it's just oats water and whatever else and it's even edible so then of course you have to get rid of it and and get a different one but otherwise anything commercial is usually fine for Passover flour and I think yeah no no any anything that has chemicals or preservatives or fragrances that are make it inedible you can use okay yes could one set of that for password could you use it for both technically you can use glass dishes including Corel for both Dairy and meat for sephardium and for PESA but it's not recommended because you will have a headache you have to always think is it perfectly clean you know if you have a dairy dish even if it's not 100 clean I don't care I don't have to examine I just take it from the closet or from the dishwasher or and that's it I use it this way I have to keep it in mind does it have a fill maybe it's a fat from the lamb or maybe it's fat from the milk I don't know and so it becomes very difficult to handle this pressure just easier to have separate but if you have to crush it once for example you take it from your weekday and you say I'm gonna wash it very well I'm gonna make sure it's 100 clean and then I'm going to use proud PESA and I don't have to worry that's okay so to to Crusher it once is okay but to have to crush it again and again that's not recommended the glass is different right same for glass that's what we're talking about Corel is like a glass for Safari yes that will still turn on you have to use your your judgment as long as you make the the base the body of the mixer very clean you wash it to the best of your ability and and the meat grinder part you you didn't put any bread in it then you can continue using it for meat that's okay but if you ever used bread with it then we're concerned that maybe somewhere inside there's bread so if that's the case and you still want to use it then you would have to um boil it in water with detergent this way the detergent will go in and make it inedible and even if the bread is there it's going to become inedible but for such a case regular boiling water is not going to help because if there's a piece of comets there it's uh it's still gonna stay plastic but as long as again as long as it's clean meat that you put in there is cold and therefore it's not going to transfer taste so again it's better not to because it's hard to clean but if you did clean it very well and you know 100 it's clean then you would still be able to use it because it's cold you have a question utensils that were used all year round if they are if the utensils are stainless steel then you can clean them very well and then boil them you have to be especially careful with Forks because between the teeth there might be some food and you have to be careful with knives that are serrated because sometimes between again those wavy Parts you can also get stuck footstock and also knives sometimes have handles and where the blade connects to the candle there's often dirt there so you have to clean it well and and when you're boiling your utensils it's a good idea to add some detergent to it this way the detergent even if you couldn't clean everything perfectly the detergent will make it inedible okay so if medicine or vitamins have taste then you have to already make sure it doesn't have any alcohol doesn't have anything from the five grains this rack is okay as long as you wash it yeah um now with um wanted to say something about the medicine um yeah alcohol if it is ethyl alcohol or ethanol is considered hummus vodka whiskey all that is hummus however any other kind of alcohol is not for example isopropyl alcohol is fine denatured alcohol is fine and any other fancy name long name for alcohol that you see in your perfumes is is fine or chemicals it's only the alcohol that is made from um wheat which is ethanol the alcohol that we drink or the medical alcohol spirit in Russian that is comets yes no not ethanol you can only use uh isopropyl alcohol the regular ethanol you can use if it's denatured if it's the nature no unless again they have other chemicals in it that make it inedible for example during covet the the hand the sanitizers they had alcohol 70 75 80 alcohol so that is regular ethanol but because the other ingredients make it inedible that was okay but still if possible isopropyl alcohol also uh clean cleans things it also kills the all the germs so just use that um now now any other questions for buying food for Passover make sure ideally that it should have if it doesn't have hashgaha the general rule for safardium is if it doesn't contain any comments and it was brought before Passover then it is okay Ashkenazi cannot follow that but sephardim as long as in the ingredients it doesn't have any comets we're not concerned for that little bit of residue or absorption because before Passover comets is nullified in 60 times and if it's if hummus is not listed the only thing that we're concerned is about is the the absorption from the utensil and that is nullified before Passover and it stays kosher on Passover as well however you have to just be careful because some ingredients are not listed as wheat or barley derivative but they have a different name but they are made from for example vinegar vinegar can be made from corn or wheat and so we have to be careful anytime you see vinegar in your food you should make sure your food has passed over because we don't know which vinegar they used so vinegar you have to be careful with yes yeah usually when it says make contain or chases off we don't have to worry about it whether it is during the year if it can if it says may contain milk then for us it's part because it becomes nullified same with may contain wheat or anything else for us it becomes nullified before Passover but again you have to buy it before Passover and one more item animal food also has to be kosher for pesach it doesn't have to be kosher but it has to be kosher for pasta which means it can have pork in it but it cannot have hummus in it so um you have to make sure it doesn't list any of the five grains wheat and barley or oats Rye or spelled if it does then you have to look for substitute and it mainly concerns Birds because bird feed usually has these grains so you have to replace it with things like millet Millet is not comets um for fish if it's flakes then some allow because they say flakes fish flakes they are not edible to a dog and therefore as long as you don't bring it next to your utensils or next to your kitchen it's okay to use for fish but that's only for the flakes anything else has to be free of of Wheat and other grains so if you have pellets or any other food for for fish you have to replace it and dog food and cat food sometimes especially dog food has grains so you have to find grain free formula yes yeah whether food has passed osification or doesn't if it was already open you have to just make sure that you remember that you always kept it separate you never left it open during baking especially that nothing ever went in you always use clean spoon you just opened it poured it out or scooped it out with a clean spoon and closed right away if that's the case then you can continue using it so um and one more thing if you have matzah saved from previous years it still stays matzah doesn't become comets unless it was open or exposed to Hamid you can use this matzah for this PESA yes same idea if your container was clean but chances are it may be covered with flour from your baking so it's preferably not you can use the container but to wash it first and then fill it up with fresh rice and anyway if you're planning to use that rice in the container you would have to clean it anyway so you have to empty the container anyway okay if you have any questions you can always text me or Whatsapp me on the group or um privately and uh Emmett website will have these folders all the contents of these folders on it you can print it as well as the link for selling your comets um check it it's going to be updated thank you for listening Happy Passover