Daily Chidush: Hilchot Pesach part 1

I wanted to uh make this daily we'll try to do a few of them today and also tomorrow to talk about of uh of PES and also the month of Nissan uh as we saw anyone that saw the Hebrew sh by rabim K and I uh didn't have any uh just had the background of the books but talked about the of of PES and now pretty much so much in so many words going to translate it into uh English so first off we need to know that the month of Nissan is a month full of Miracles hence the name Nissan Nissan comes from the word Ness uh so many miracles happened during uh the month of Nissan this is one of the reasons why throughout the entire month of Nissan the spartic do not say VI the part where we uh tell hem during our daily prayer in and that we've sinned all these different types of sins we do not say it during during this uh during this entire month uh the second thing we do during the month of Nissan is um the and by the way in regards to ashkanazi ashkanazi do not do uh the uh from what I know do do not do uh the uh uh in general uh during uh the same times as the spartic so uh the second thing is in regards to is a praise to hem uh cuz this is the season of when new fruits grow uh so uh one must go in front of a uh you know fruit tree of uh some type that right before the fruits uh start growing really literally right in the beginning which is around this time of the year and uh make a special blessing theot the blessing of theot uh praising hem uh for uh creating a perfect world and uh a place for us to enjoy every one of his creations uh the uh next thing is in regards to the uh the whole issue ofz uh Thursday night this year is when we are all supposed to uh uh when Nightfall happens when there's three stars in the sky or in uh pretty much most areas in the world is some up of a specific time but usually it's based on when the stars are expected uh we are supposed to check forz now the first and most important thing that one needs to check for as we mentioned a couple of days ago in the is the inside him or you know the the that's inside you and I'm not referring to food I'm I'm referring to the bad midot that each one of us needs to work on uh whether it be anger or stinginess or uh you know any other bad character trait that obviously is not the Mida it's not the character trait of Hashem we're here to emulate AEM and uh act the same way uh he acts Acts the same act the same way that we want him to act towards us so if one is cheap then Hashem could be cheap to them if one is uh you know is brutal and never has any Mercy on anyone then unfortunately he's bringing that mid on himself if one is angry again all of these things that one is the way he acts he's in essence going to bring those things to himself so the first we need to uh work on is the one in ourselves the one that uh you know we are uh need to work on throughout the entire year and PES is a perfect opportunity to start working on them and start doing chuva you know obviously working on midot is not an overnight process the um from salant who started a musar movement uh a um said that to work on one midan one character trait uh is hard work every single day for six years and is more difficult than completing the entire Shas so obviously it is not an overnight process but better now than never better start now than just ignore it and saying it's too hard for us to change ourselves because one who does not change his midot is not fulfilling his purpose in the world so working on this uh the uh the night of uh the physical KET that we have here the night of Thursday night is when we are going to have to make sure that all of theet in the house or any place we're going to spend any time in uh throughout the holiday uh has to have no whatsoever uh anyone that's traveling uh you know and is in a hotel room has to check the hotel room anyone that's at home or at someone else's house has to check and make sure that there's no it's a Minag or a custom to uh put uh 10 different uh you know pieces of KET in different places one person has to hide them usually the wife and the uh the husband looks for them with the candle or if a candle is uh you know is too dangerous uh you know in some places where it's too small or or just not you know it's uh flammable uh then you can use according to Raad you can use a flashlight um ideally it's a candle but uh again make sure that you're very careful look forets uh and uh if she uh the wife would hide 10 pieces of KET you put them usually in Ziploc bags or some type of bag so obviously they don't spread everywhere and you find them once you find these kets then it shows that you've made a good uh good check uh also 30 minutes before the is no longer uh you know checking the KET you're not allowed to eat a big meal so before you checking the HT 30 minutes beforehand you have to you have to not eat any big meals and uh or start any me any any work uh why because these things usually cause a person to forget uh of things that he needs to do and you end up Shalom delaying or postponing it to a later time which even though even if you forgot or or it just didn't happen to do it right at the time where there's three stars in the sky you're still obligated to do it but ideally it's good to do it right at the time where we're supposed to do it and not uh you know at 3:00 in the morning or some later time so uh make sure that you're checking for the very good this is also a very good thing to bring your kids to uh to join you uh and uh show them the importance of uh finding and making sure that we remove it from our from ourselves for this holiday as we all know in the Torah it specifically says that one who violates the PES holiday is K it's the it's the worst possible punishment in the Torah uh it's in the same level of violating Shabbat uh and we've talked many many times about how significant violating Shabbat is Cuts you off from the nation of Israel Cuts you off from the nation of of the Jewish people so obviously this is something we all need to understand uh that uh theet is not just a small no big deal thing it is a very very big deal um now any KET that uh you uh you still have left you either have to uh sell it or burn it uh and this is uh what one of the main things you need to do and also during the time that you uh burn the uh you also do a blessing that any that you know of or you don't know of is considered Nolan void is considered uh like ashes or dust so this is something again very very important to do even if you're traveling you're still obligated to sell your back home uh so make sure you meet with a rabbi that will show you uh you know exactly what to say and what to do uh in order to sell your an appropriate way don't just say it in your mind thinking that it's okay cuz again this is too big of a Mitzvah too big of an obligation for us to mess around with and and just uh have shortcuts um so again p is a Biblical obligation it's from the torat it's not some holiday that a few people created in uh because they were bored with their life this is specifically a time that uh we are celebrating the Exodus the uh aside from that you know in regards to uh the uh the holiday we have to also make sure that during this time right now as we speak one of the major alot of the month of Nissan and of p is to learn the Al and the story of PES uh so this is a time where every one of us needs to spend a little bit of time either watching shim or learning from books about the story of The Exodus and I don't mean just the basic story that they had a move movie about 40 years ago I mean the mid to make it interesting for the family to uh to enjoy the story of PES uh and you know whether you know the blood you could say it in two version the blood plague that Hashem brought on the Egyptians you can say it in two versions one very boring version which is okay the water turned into blood or the second version is the water turned into blood but not just the water turn the blood but anything and everything that ever had any water in it including an orange obviously has water in it a tree obviously has water in it a any type of fruit the walls you know you you know when you have when you put walls together you have to use some water you know especially when it you know in those times uh cement and so on uh anything and everything that had water in it turned into blood meaning that the walls were bleeding the uh fruits were bleeding everything was bleeding why cuz Hashem wanted to show Amel and the Egyptians that he has complete control of the entire world and he's doing this all for the Jews because the Jews only had water Egyptians only had blood so there's many many other details about it this is also one of the ways that Hashem fulfilled his promise to Abraham ainu where he said that your your people your descendants are going to leave slavery with a lot of wealth a lot of wealth so how how do they leave with a lot of wealth there's three different uh ways that they got wealthy one of them is through this plague of blood uh because the Egyptians obviously needed to drink they can't drink blood they can't survive on blood so what would they do they'd have to buy the water from the Jews because if they tried stealing it from the Jews or taking it forcefully from the Jews it would stay blood even if it was a cup of water in the hand of a Jew one second and the Egyptian just put a straw and started drinking it it instantly turn into blood unless he paid for it so this is literally miracles on the spot and this is one of the ways that the Jewish people got very very wealthy and turned from slaves to you know a dominant world power so again when hasem wants to bring us salvation he brings it instantly so you can make the story very interesting tell people how Hashem is extraordinary and amazing and Beyond everything and anything back then today and in the future or you could just say oh yeah the water turned into blood just like it says in the A and move on to the next plague so again obligation is to learn these stories learn these details watch the shim we made uh on the relevant uh which is uh in the beginning of the book of Exodus we have several we tried very hard to include a lot of mid a lot of Stories Behind the Story of what happened in Egypt exactly uh so you can use all of this for your time during the SED because the biggest obligation during the SED believe it or not is not eating the biggest obligation ation is to tell the story of The Exodus to tell the story of so we all need to spend some time today tomorrow and prepare ourselves for the uh you know for the sedo uh other than that as far as the uh uh again make sure that you brush your teeth very very carefully before uh the uh the holiday begins to make sure that there's no inside your teeth because unlike the rest of the year uh the uh uh PES does not have a cancelable amount meaning that you know usually when you have uh you know something kosher let's say a kosher dish but there's a uh a drop of non kosher something drops into it if that drop is one part out of 60 or less then the dish is considered kosher still but in a uh in in PES if there's one drop one tiny little drop of non kosher piece of bread or anything that's not Kosher Passover that goes into a dish that's the size of Jerusalem the entire dish is V void and not Kos P there's no in PES this is very very very important uh in regards to PES that there's no uh there's no one out of 60 in uh in PES um what else we had a uh as far as um the uh theet again make sure that every product that you buy has an obvious stamp not just a sticker but an obvious stamp from a respectable raban uh rabinal authority of kosher that is kosher for Passover do not assume anything is kosher for Passover including salt including sugar even though it's not logical for us to think why would salt be not Kosher of Passover or sugar in today's manufacturing world many of these places that manufacture in large quantities have you know different types of products it's not just salt it's not just sugar it's not just uh different things they they they also put wheat and and other things in the same fields and the same companies and sometimes you'll have a grain of uh of non kosher for Passover uh you know in uh you know in in a huge uh canister of of Kosher Passover and completely ruining it so you have to make sure that everything is uh a uh a Kos a Passover from a respectable place um and as far as a uh as far as the kosher part of it just to give you guys an understanding of uh of uh this world that we live in uh just a couple of years ago the uh rer fry walks into a store and he sees an Arab worker putting koser of Passover stickers on beer which can never be koser of Passover so just to give you an understanding is that these people that have no have no fear of hem are have no clue either so they just take advantage of naive people that do not spend any time learning about Kosher Passover or what's kosher what's not Kosher people go to a store they see a sticker saying K Passover oh great okay so I'll drink beer on Passover there's no such thing so certain products that can never be kosher and there certain products that can be but you have to make sure the stamp is part of the packaging it's not just some sticker that somebody could have put uh also in regards toot are allowed to uh uh spartic but the ashkanazi mean hug already that's hundreds and hundreds of years old is not to eat which is things like rice so if you are ashkanazi uh you unless you uh have authority from the uh a major r that you've pretty much in essence changed everything to spartic you are not allowed to have kitot so in essence unless you've become spartic all year round which is allowed uh you are not allowed to have K even if you like them even if uh you don't want to keep this Minag there's no such thing we are obligated to not only keep the of the Tor but also the and the of our forefathers the forefathers of the asazi did not eat kot out of concern that in those days the same sacks that we used for Rice were also used for wheat so since you're not allowed to have wheat they said listen we don't know if one grain of uh wheat can go into the uh rice might as well we're not allowed to eat uh rice either so again even though today that issue is not the same the bottom line is is that the Minag is already already exist we're not allowed to cancel minim uh and therefore if you're askanazi you're not allowed to have it and also certain parts of uh of uh the uh spartic like for example Moroccans also do not eat kitot uh so this is again another another thing that we need to know um make sure that uh any products that you buy whether it's peanuts candy or anything else is only from closed it's closed and sealed uh it's not a good idea to buy it from these places that have open sacks of uh of food because sometimes uh it's easy for a drop of K to go in there and which ruins the whole thing which you would never be able to see with the you know the naked eye uh that's another thing uh medicine is if it has no taste uh does not need to be kosher for Passover but if it does have taste if it has any taste whatsoever uh like a sugary taste or anything like that then it must be kosher for Passover even though it's medicine uh so that's another thing uh the the last thing uh but not least in regards to this is the um uh you know the the Moroccans were so uh uh um scared of violating Passover because they truly knew in the old age they knew exactly what it meant unlike unfortunately some people today and some of us today that they literally would not even host any guests on Passover they wouldn't go anywhere themselves they would just everybody was just focusing on the holiday making sure that they celebrate the holiday perfectly and this is the reason uh behind or at least one of the reasons behind the uh celebration that the Moroccans have which is called the mimuna mimuna was started to show everybody listen we weren't together for these for this holiday but to make sure everybody knows it's not because of something personal obviously we want to have a celebration where everyone's invited every family friends everyone is invited to have the celebration uh so this again gives us an idea that Unity is extremely important during time of Passover but kosher is just as important if not more important than anything else throughout the entire year we'll come up with some more things to give you later today and uh if you have any specific questions please feel free to ask may hasm continue to bless you andm this will help us get closer and closer to hm