Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504180014
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One of the more difficult requirements is to rid the house not only of all leaven and leavened products but even the pots and utensils used in the past year with leavened foods.
In ancient times, said Rabbi Jerome Fox of Beth Israel Synagogue, that meant throwing out all the clay pots and other utensils that had been used with leavened foods.
"There were no huge cupboards of stored food," he said, so families probably didn't have to worry about eating up lots of food made with leaving agents to get rid of it before Passover.
The biblical account of the Jews' Exodus from Egypt includes a description of the haste in which they departed for the Promised Land. They were in such a rush that they didn't have time to let breads rise, but ate unleavened bread.
Later, laws were established regulating the commemoration of the Exodus and the Passover of the Jews during the final plague on the Egyptians, in which the first-born of each house died. One of the requirements was the eating of unleavened bread and emptying one's house of any leavening agents.
That continues as part of the modern Passover observance.
Eventually, Fox said, it became financially burdensome to actually throw away all the dishes, utensils and appliances that had come into contact with leavening. So, religious authorities came up with the "legal fiction" of selling one's kitchen utensils and appliances to a non-Jew for the week of Passover, then buying it back after the holiday.
The rabbis concluded "the commandment was for Jews but not for Gentiles," Fox said, so a friendly non-Jew became a legitimate vehicle for complying with the law.
For Fox, the traditional sale has become an instrument for interfaith understanding. In each of his 12 years at Beth Israel, he has contracted the sale with a Christian minister, usually the president of the interfaith Roanoke Valley Ministers' Conference.
This year the purchaser will be the Rev. Nelson Harris.
Harris said he expects to gain "a deeper understanding and greater appreciation of the rituals and traditions in which the center of my faith, Jesus of Nazareth, grew up."
He said he will share the experience with members of his congregation at Ridgewood Baptist Church and hopes it will enhance their "understanding of our own identity and Jewish roots."
The day before Passover begins, April 13 this year, Harris will attend a special service at Beth Israel, where he will sign papers taking possession of the leaven-tainted articles from participating members of the congregation.
Harris also will receive the proceeds of a monetary collection from the participants, which he will donate to charity. Five dollars of the collection is held back as a symbolic payment from him. When he returns the letters of ownership after April 23, he will be given the final $5 as "repayment" from the original owners.
by CNB