- Shabbat and Holidays
- Chametz and Pesach Products
229
Question
It is forbidden to handle chametz on yom tov.
Answer
Shalom,
Thank you for your email. I am not so certain exactly what it is that you are trying to say in your short comment. You are certainly correct that chametz if forbidden to handle on Yom Tov – it's mukzah – as I wrote at length in my response. Perhaps you are referring to the last lines of my answer why I wrote that "If, on the other hand, you know the other Jew is not going to listen to you - and will perhaps be so insulted or hurt that it may totally turn them away from Torah and Mitzvot, then my advice is to take the gift, saying to yourself that you have no intention of acquiring it at all. Then immediately take it away, cover it with a vessel, and destroy it after Yom Tov is over. Under no circumstance may you actually knowingly accept a gift of chametz."
If you are in fact commenting on these lines, and asking yourself how I ruled that they could handle the chametz – the answer is as follows. The person who bought the gift of chametz is in all likelihood not going to destroy it – and therefore break the Torah law of not destroying chametz. You, on the other hand, by handling the gift (without intent to acquire the chametz) are at most breaking a rabbinic law of mukzah. But, in truth, I believe that you would not even be breaking the law of mukzah. This is because the person who bought the chametz should, if they were to ask us the law, merely put it down and cover it. That is exactly what you are doing for them – taking the chametz, putting it down, and covering it, with the intent to destroy it latter. You are merely acting as their agent, unbeknownst to them.
I hope this answers your comment – if not, feel free to write again.
Blessings.

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