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What are the basic halachic requirements for Pesach cleaning?👀
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Rabbi Eli Gersten, OU Kosher recorder of psak and policy, breaks down the answer. For more information on how to kasher counters and appliances, download the OU Guide to Pesach at oupassover.org.
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
What are some of the basic requirements for
cleaning your house for Pesach? So, first of all,
we have to know what we're looking for when
we're cleaning. We're looking for items that are
still edible, even if they're very small, such as
Cheerios. That's what we're looking for. Crumbs,
we say that those are called perurim, and they're
"lo chashivi," they're battle (nullified), so
really, one doesn't have to search for
them. However, the general custom is
that we do. The minhag is that we clean every
surface that we can. The main halacha is to be
searching for edible pieces of chametz such as
we mentioned even small ones such as Cheerios
or pretzels. If there is chametz that is stuck
on toys, a child might put that in their mouth
on Pesach, so those too should be checked
through. Some people will put away the toys,
have special toys for Pesach. Some people will
scrub them or clean them. If there's any surfaces
where people are going to be using food, those
need to be not just search for chametz, but they
need to be cleaned. So any counters, in the
pantry, refrigerator, those areas need to be
sprayed down so that in case there is some crumb
that remains there, it would become ruined by the
detergent that you spray on it. Any place where
a person might leave chametz has to be checked,
coat pockets, drawers, if their little children
in the house, then chametz could be anywhere.
The rule is you do not have to move very heavy
pieces of furniture. But let's say your sofa,
might vacuum under things, might get moved around.
You need to push that aside. You need to take out
the cushions to search in them for any chametz.
The general minhag is that we vacuum and we scrub,
we sweep every area of the house. The
car should be done as well. Car seats,
those are notorious for having chametz. Any place
where you might have chametz needs to be checked.