Recap for 27 Adar 5777 (Parsha Vayakhel)

This Shabbos we discussed Parsha Vayakhel.   We also discussed the idea of “legal fictions”, which are ways the Rabbis make it easier to follow the Torah.  And we discussed the upcoming holiday of Pesach, including how we sell our chumatz.  I would like to thank David and Linda for hosting our Kiddush.  David Schlesinger led discussion.

We discussed the idea of “legal fictions”.  The Rabbis have come up with ways that make following the Torah easier for us.  Each of these ways appear to be creating a Torah violation, however this is technically not the case.  Technically, we do not violate the Torah with these "legal fictions".  The “legal fictions” include setting up an Eruv so that we can carry in our neighborhoods, and selling Chumatz right before Pesach, so we can continue to possess the Chumatz during the holiday locked up in our homes.

We discussed how the Rabbis were concerned that if following the Torah was too difficult, some of us would not do it, and would “fall off the dereck”.  However, we discussed that today we may have gone too far.  Allowing driving to shul on Shabbos, for example, because we would not come otherwise, seems to be going too far.  With this leniency, we would in fact be violating the Torah. 

We discussed the process of selling our Chumatz for Pesach, which is one of our “legal fictions”.  Before Pesach, we agree on a price, and receive a down payment from a non-Jew for the purchase of our Chumatz which we have locked away somewhere in our house.  The Chumatz becomes completely owned by the non-Jew upon making the down payment.  The agreement made is that the Chumatz will be completely paid for later. The agreement states that the Chumatz will become owned by us, again, if the non-Jew fails to pay the remaining balance.  

Yakoov pointed out, that we need to make sure the total price of the Chumatz is high enough that the non-Jew is not as likely to buy it, and if he or she does, at least we will receive a fair price.  It is also important to make the down payment small enough that the non-Jew is interested in making the deal.  Most importantly, we do not want to create the appearance that we are pretending to have a sale – even though we know the non-Jew is unlikely to make the purchase at the end.  We should try to have the mindset that maybe the non-Jew will in fact go through with the deal.

David brought up that there has to be different contracts for selling Chumatz, depending on the time zones of where we are planning to be before Pesach.  For example, Pesach comes to Israel before it comes to the United States.  If we are planning to be in Israel for Pesach, we must contract for the sale of our chumatz earlier than we would if we were planning to be in the United States.  It does not matter where the chumatz is located.  What matters is where we will be.  If our Chumatz is in Israel, but we are planning to be in the United States, our Chumatz can be sold later, however we need to make sure that ownership does not revert back to us until Pesach is over in the United States. 

I asked why we just don’t sell our Chumatz a day early, and have ownership revert to us a day later to avoid these issues.  Rob shared his thoughts that we really like our Chumatz, and would not like to be waiting unnecessarily!  Regardless of our time zone, we should try to get rid of as much Chumatz as possible, and only sell some of it if it is absolutely necessary.

We discussed Parsha Vayakhel.  Yaki shared some of his thoughts.  He spoke about how we were first reminded to observe the Sabbath, prior to given instructions on building the Mishkan.  This was to remind us not to work on the Mishkan over Shabbos.  Yaki commented that although a positive mitzvah of building the Mishkan, would normally override a negative mitzvah of not violating Shabbos, in this case there was no requirement that the Mishkan be built on a specific date.  This is in contrast to a Bris, which can in fact take place on Shabbos.  This is because this procedure and ceremony must be done on the 8^th day. 

Finally, we discussed that as we look forward to Pesach, and begin our preparations for this holiday, it is important to go into it with a positive attitude that this is a joyous holiday, rather than one which requires a lot of work.  Cleaning the house for Pesach, does not have to be as rigorous as many make it out to be.  As we have discussed, we are allowed to own small pieces of Chumatz that are smaller than about the size of an olive.  Therefore it is not necessarily to do an enormous spring cleaning.

This is a summary of what we discussed.  No halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.