Religion Magazine

the Sale of Chametz Has to Be Taken Seriously

By Gldmeier @gldmeier
the sale of chametz is real.
The statement above is really the reason I do not like the "new" chumra of demanding baked products after Pesach to be made from freshly ground flour rather than from flour sold for Pesach. The demand itself implies that the sale is not reliable or not true, which is not the case. Not only is it not the case, it makes the demand that stores sell their chametz problematic, when if they don't you will not buy there and if they do you will not buy there, so why should they bother? But worse is the implication that the sale is not valid or effective.
To that end, a makolet in Jerusalem dealt with some confusion between the partners and the owners never sold the chametz in the store. The confusion was caused by the owners brother having been responsible for selling the chametz for upwards of 23 years, and now has stopped working in the store. The active partner did not realize that he needed to deal with it and only realized later that it had not been done.
Right before the end of Pesach, on the last day of Chol Hamoed, it was discovered that the chametz in the store had not been sold. The rav of the neighborhood went to the store and insisted that all the chametz products be removed form the store and be destroyed by fire. The rav himself supervised the burning of all the chametz. Obviously the owner was hesitant to have tens of thousands shekels worth of product destroyed, but the rav's insistence with explanations that the community will not buy from him after Pesach persuaded him to go along with it.
source: Kikar
the sale of chametz has to be taken seriously
yes, the sale is a real transaction and must be done to be able to use the chametz after Pesach, and you cannot just find other solutions "after the fact".
Further, it seems that in the USA there was a problem with some brands of beer over Pesach. The Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada has published a letter (I could not find it on their website) certain beers, with a list, should not be purchased after pesach, despite the fact that the beers had been sold to a non Jew for Pesach.
The problem stems from a non-religious Jew who works as and agent and marketer for these beers. This non-religious Jew supposedly sold his products to a non_jew but during Pesach he continued doing business and selling and marketing these beers. The fact that he continued to do business with this product, despite it being sold to a non-Jew puts the entire original sale in a precarious position that makes it unreliable and turns all that beer into chametz owned by a Jew over Pesach that is then prohibited after Pesach. According to the vaad hakashrus, these beers cannot be purchased until after Shvuos.
source: Kikar
Again, the sale of chametz is a real thing, not just some fictitious loophole playing games.
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