Rabbi B - Chametz and Matzah

All right, 1 2 3 4 5. Okay, Devorah, five pieces, five more to go. Oh, hi there. It's Rabbi B and Devorah here, and we are doing the b'dikas chametz, the search for chametz. You see, on Pesach, we're not allowed to eat or have any chametz in our homes for eight whole days. Devorah, bread is a kind of chametz. Chametz is any kind of flour and water mixture that had time to rise. So, on Pesach, because we're not allowed to have any in our homes, it's a mitzvah to search and find chametz right before Pesach to make sure it's all cleaned up and put away until after Pesach. And before we started searching for chametz, we made the brachah, "Baruch Atah Hashem Elokeinu Melech Ha'Olam, Asher Kidishanu B'Mitzvotav V'Tzivanu Al Biur Chametz." So, Devorah and I are playing a game. Devorah has hidden 10 pieces of chametz around the house, and I have to find them. And so far, we found five. But Devorah, it's taking a very long time. Could you just tell me where the other five pieces are so we can finish the search? Oh, no, Devorah. You can't remember where you hid them? Oh, no. That's terrible. We should have made a checklist that had all the places Devorah hid them. That way, we'd know where they are. That's a pretty good idea. But for now, we're going to have to find them ourselves. Hey, they Maybe you can help us. Throughout the video, we're going to learn about chametz and matzah. And if you can keep your eyes open and help us find the last five pieces of chametz, it looks like this. A piece of bread. And if you can help me find them by the end of the video, that would be great. What's that? Devorah, they say they already see a piece right behind me. Where? Oh, ho, ho. Excellent. You have really good eyes. Thank you so much. All right, Devorah, we'll get that piece, and now we only have four more to go. Keep on looking for that chametz. We'll see you soon. Bye-bye. Come along, come along, come along right now. We'll sing together, I'll show you how. Come along, come along, come along with me. Come along with Rabbi B. Come along, come along, come along right now. We'll sing together, I'll show you how. Come along, come along, come along with me. Come along with Rabbi B. We'll say Modeh Ani with the morning sun. Get into the mood and join the fun. Let's thank Hashem for everything. Dance around with that simcha feeling. Come along, come along, come along right now. We'll sing together, I'll show you how. Come along, come along, come along with me. Come along with Rabbi B. Come along with Rabbi B. We're in Brooklyn, New York, at a matzah bakery, where they make matzahs just for Pesach. Let's go inside and take a look. It is a mitzvah to eat matzah on Pesach. Matzah is special bread that did not have time to rise, and it stays flat. Matzah is made of two ingredients, flour and water. As soon as flour and water touch, the mixer has to mix very, very fast, because it takes 18 minutes for a flour and water to become chametz, and we are not allowed to eat chametz on Pesach. To make sure all the chametz is gone, they have to clean the mixing bowl very, very well. Once the dough is made, they have to roll the dough very well to make sure all the flour and water are mixed together. Then, they roll smaller pieces of dough into round circles. The dough is starting to look like matzah. Now, a special machine puts holes in the dough to make sure the matzah gets baked all the way through. Wow, look how many matzahs there are hanging on these long poles. Now, each long pole of dough is taken to a very hot oven. And inside the oven, the matzah will bake very, very quickly. This oven is much hotter than your oven at home. The baker now has to take out the matzah before it gets too burnt. The matzah is then cooled and sorted. Then, the matzah is weighed to make sure everyone gets the right amount of matzah inside their box. Yes, it takes a lot of care to make a kosher for Pesach matzah. So, next time you take a bite, remember how much went into making that matzah. Yes, every Passover, Jewish families everywhere clean their homes to get rid of a forbidden item, chametz. Chametz can come in many forms. This bread, for instance, is chametz. So is this double chocolate donut and this muffin. They are all chametz. Little Sammy here is enjoying a sandwich. But Sammy, that sandwich would not be allowed on Pesach because it is chametz. And little Miriam, you can enjoy that pizza now, but on Pesach, you better get rid of it because it's chametz. Chametz is any flour and water mixture that has had enough time to rise. An active ingredient in chametz is called yeast. Yeast is a microscopic fungus that produces carbon dioxide gas. This gas helps things like bread rise. Matzah is the opposite of chametz. It does not have any yeast at all and is baked so fast, it does not give time for the dough to rise at all. So, this Pesach, throw away, destroy, and sell any chametz you may have in your home so that you and your family can enjoy and have a happy and kosher Pesach. You know, today, baruch Hashem, you can get matzah in so many different stores, and they have all kinds of matzah to buy. But a long time ago, it wasn't so easy. And that's the topic of today's Big Yellow Comfy Couch story, Extra Matzah. Let's read together. Passover was only a few weeks away, and Rabbi Eliezer Zusha Portugal, known as the Skulener Rebbe, had taken on the responsibility of getting shmurah matzah for the Jewish people in his town. This year, there was not enough wheat to make a lot of matzah. So, each family would only receive three matzahs for Pesach. One week before Pesach, the son of Rabbi Baruch, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, came to get matzahs for his father. After being handed three matzahs, he said to the Skulener Rebbe, "I know that you are only giving out three matzahs, but my father is the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, and he demands six matzahs." The Skulener Rebbe felt that he had no choice but to honor the request of this great Rebbe. In his heart, he thought it was odd that the Vizhnitzer Rebbe would ask for more than anyone else. On the day before Pesach, the son of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe returned to the Skulener Rebbe saying, "My father wants to know if there is any matzah left." The Skulener Rebbe answered that there was none left at all. The Vizhnitzer Rebbe's son asked, "What about matzah for you and your family?" The Skulener Rebbe shook his head. In his great ahavas Yisrael, he had given out all the matzah to other families, leaving none for him and his own family. "My father assumed you would do that." explained the Vishnitzer Rebbe's son. "That is why he took six matzahs, three for our family and the extra three are for you and your family." Chag kasher v'sameach. Happy Pesach. Wow, that was very thoughtful of the Vishnitzer Rebbe to think about the school in Orebe and make sure that he got matzahs too. But baruch Hashem, we have lots of matzah today for our Pesach. What's that? You see another piece of chametz? WHERE? BARUCH HASHEM, YOU HAVE A GOOD EYE. Thanks for finding it. Oh, good. We'll keep this piece of chametz and make sure to burn it later tomorrow. Oh, oh, I know what that sound means. It sounds like Cogall the robot. Let's go see what Cogall's up to today. Haha, I knew it was you Cogall. We could hear your robot sounds. How are you today? I am fine. How are you? Oh, I'm doing great baruch Hashem. We are getting ready for Pesach. But Cogall, I noticed something on top of your head over there. What is it? It looks like Devorah hid another piece of chametz on top of Cogall. Cogall, you're not cleaned for Pesach. Here, let me get that for you. Thank you. All right, Devorah, can you please put this with our chametz bag? Thank you very much Devorah. Wow. Wow, baruch Hashem Cogall, we're well on our way to finding all those missing pieces of chametz. Would you like to know where the ingredients for matzah comes from? Yeah, I've always wondered that Cogall. Where do they get the ingredients to make the matzah in order to make sure that none of them are chametz? Okay, just say okay Cogall. Okay, Cogall. Show us how they get the ingredients for matzah. There are only two ingredients in matzah, flour and water. In order to keep the flour kosher for Pesach, the Jewish farmers have to make sure the wheat kernels are perfectly dry before they cut them. If they get wet after they are cut, they can become chametz. The kernels are then crushed into flour. Doing the crushing by hand helps make sure no water or moisture gets mixed into the flour. Next, fresh water has to be collected. In Israel, these people are collecting water from a fresh water spring. The water will also be sealed and protected from any chametz. Then, these two ingredients are brought to the matzah bakery and only mixed once the bakery is ready to bake the matzahs. The baking process takes very little time, so there will not be any chance for chametz. Wow, that looked like a great team effort. Everyone worked together to make sure the flour and the water was perfectly ready and chametz free to make the matzahs for Pesach. Would you like the question of the day? Sure, I'd love to hear the question of the day. Okay, Cogall, what is the question of the day? Hi Rabbi B, my name is JJ and I want to ask you a question. Why do we only eat matzah on Pesach? Great question, JJ. Thank you for sending it in. That is a good question. Why do we eat matzah on Pesach? Well, I know where we're going to have to check. We're going to have to ask the Torah cuz the Torah knows all those answers. Torah, Torah, why do we eat matzah on Pesach? Well, Rabbi B, there are two reasons from the Torah why we eat matzah on Pesach. When the Jewish people were still living in Mitzrayim, Hashem commanded them to eat matzah for a seven-day holiday. Shiv'at yamim matzot tocheilu. Then, when the Jewish people were freed, they left in such a hurry that the dough that they were trying to bake did not have time to rise. It cooked so quickly in the sun that it became matzah. So, we also eat matzah to remember this great miracle of yetziat Mitzrayim. Wow, when we eat matzah, it's a double mitzvah. It helps us remember coming out of Mitzrayim and of course Hashem commanded it as well. What a beautiful reason for a beautiful mitzvah. Baruch Hashem. Well, thank you Cogall and thank you Torah and thank you Devorah and thank you too. Bye. Bye, everybody. In Hebrew, the word matzah is spelled mem, tzadi, hey. Matzah. But did you know that the word chametz is almost spelled with the exact same letters as matzah? Chametz is spelled chet, mem, tzadi. The mem and the tzadi are the same. The only difference is the letters hey and chet. But those two letters are so close to being the same. The hey from matzah has a little space right here and the letter chet has no space at all. Since matzah and chametz are made with the same ingredients, flour and water, it is very easy for matzah to become chametz. In fact, it could take as little as 18 minutes for flour and water to become chametz. This teaches us a very special lesson. Matzah teaches us that we should be proud of who we are and use our talents to make the world a better place. But our pride could easily become chametz when we use our talents to show off or make others feel less than ourselves. So, on Pesach, we get rid of the chametz and only eat matzah. Well, Pesach is almost here and there are so many wonderful things that we're going to eat and lots of things we're not going to eat. Like we do eat matzah, but we do not eat chametz. Let's sing a song together. Goes like this. We will eat some crunchy matzah when it comes. Matzah. We will eat some crunchy matzah when it comes. Matzah. We will eat some crunchy matzah. We'll eat some crunchy matzah at the Pesach seder when it comes. Matzah. And we won't eat any chametz when it comes. Chametz. We will not eat any chametz when it comes. Chametz. We will not eat any chametz. We won't eat any chametz at the Pesach seder when it comes. Chametz. But we'll eat some crunchy matzah when it comes. Matzah. We will eat some bitter maror when it comes. Maror. We will eat some bitter maror when it comes. Maror. We will eat some bitter maror. We'll eat some bitter maror at the Pesach seder when it comes. Maror. But we won't eat any chametz when it comes. Chametz. And we'll eat some crunchy matzah when it comes. Matzah. Oh, I know what else. We will drink four cups of grape juice when it comes. Grape juice. We will drink four cups of grape juice when it comes. Grape juice. We will drink four cups of grape juice. We'll drink four cups of grape juice at the Pesach seder when it comes. Grape juice. And we'll eat some bitter maror when it comes. And we won't eat any chametz when it comes. Chametz. But we'll eat some crunchy matzah when it comes. Matzah. We will ask four questions when it comes. Four questions. We will ask four questions when it comes. Four questions. We will ask four questions. We'll ask four questions at the Pesach seder when it comes. Four questions. And we'll drink four cups of grape juice when it comes. Grape juice. And we'll eat some bitter maror when it comes. Maror. we won't eat any chametz when it comes. Chametz. And we'll eat some crunchy matzah when it comes. Matzah. At the Pesach seder when it comes. Well, baruch Hashem Devorah, we found four more pieces of chametz. So, we have nine, but there's still one missing somewhere in the house. Oh, I wish we could find it somewhere. Mhm. I don't see it anywhere. Oh, well. We're going to have What's that? It was on my back? Devorah, can you please get it for me? And put it right inside the bag. Baruch Hashem, we found all 10 pieces of chametz and now our house is totally clean. Baruch Hashem. Now we can say a special prayer called the Kol Chamira. It goes like this. All leaven or anything leavened which is in my possession, which I have neither seen nor removed and about which I am unaware, shall be considered as nullified and ownerless like the dust of the earth. All right. Well, I'm very glad we're done and now of course we can put back inside the bag as well the spoon, the feather, and the candle that we used for because chametz. And now we can go tomorrow morning and burn the chametz as our last thing to do before Pesach begins. I want to wish you and your family a very happy Pesach. Chag kasher v'sameach. Have a great Pesach. Rabbi B loves hearing from fans. Please send any fan mail, drawings, or questions to [email protected]. Welcome to rabbib.org, your one-stop shop for everything Rabbi B. On my site you can find out more about me, watch the latest video, or check out past episodes. Check out all of Rabbi B's books, albums, upcoming concerts, and events. I even have activities and coloring pages, too. Easily contact me with a question, comment, or just to say hi. And you can do all that with the comfort and safety of one website, rabbib.org. Let's make being Jewish fun and exciting. Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe Vido, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe Vido, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe Vido.