Siman 433, Se'if 1 · The time of the bedikah and the reason for candlelight

Shulchan Aruch, Siman 433, the laws of bedikas chametz, containing eleven se'ifim. Se'if 1:
"The bedikah must be done by the light of a candle and not by the light of the moon. If one transgressed and did not search on the night of the fourteenth, then when he searches on the day of the fourteenth he should not search by daylight but by the light of a candle."
(Shulchan Aruch)

The time of the bedikah and the reason for candlelight

• The night of the fourteenth: The Mishnah Berurah (s.k. 1) explains when the bedikah takes place: on the night of the fourteenth, meaning the night between the thirteenth of Nissan and the fourteenth of Nissan.
• First reason for fixing the search at night: The Gemara gives a reason connected to the fact that at night people are found at home.
• Second reason: Candlelight is well suited to searching, whereas during the day a candle does not give off the same brightness that it gives at night.
• Why specifically a candle: With a candle one can check holes and cracks, since it can be brought right inside. Light coming from outside creates a shadow, because the body of the person searching blocks the light from the very place he is checking, while a candle is held in front of him.
• A flashlight instead of a candle: One may use a flashlight, and as was already mentioned, in a place where there is a danger, such as searching a car, one searches with a flashlight.

One who did not search on the night of the fourteenth

• The basic ruling: Even though the bedikah has been pushed off to the day of the fourteenth, one does not search by daylight but by candlelight.
• The lenient reasoning: Some poskim cite a reasoning that if he did search by daylight, that suffices. This also depends on how strong the lighting in the place is.
• Lechatchilah: It is forbidden to deliberately push off the bedikah to the day of the fourteenth from the outset.

One who searches before the night of the fourteenth

• He searched on the day of the thirteenth by candlelight: He must search again on the night of the fourteenth, as the Sages instituted. We are speaking of someone who is leaving his home before Pesach, for instance someone going to a hotel a few days before Yom Tov, and who does his bedikah before he leaves.
• He searched on the night of the thirteenth by candlelight: If he searched at night by candlelight, which is the time when a candle is well suited to searching, and he was careful afterward not to bring any chametz in, he need not search again.
• One who returns home before Pesach: Someone who searched before his trip and then the trip fell through, for example his hotel stay was cancelled and he is back home, searches again, but does not recite the berachah on that bedikah, since there are poskim who hold that after the fact he already fulfilled his obligation with the first search.

One who sets out on a journey before Pesach

"One who sets sail on the sea or departs with a caravan, and does not leave anyone at home to search, if it is within thirty days he is obligated to search, and he does not then recite the berachah 'al biur chametz.'"
(Shulchan Aruch)

• The meaning of "hamefaresh": The word denotes separating and withdrawing, one who withdraws from dry land out to sea.

"And he does not recite the berachah: When one searches on the night of the fourteenth the Sages instituted the berachah 'al biur chametz,' because whatever he finds in the search he puts away in order to destroy it the next day, so that the search is the beginning of the destruction. That is not the case here, where he will not destroy it from the world but rather will use it during the intervening days."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 4)

• The bedikah as the start of the biur: Seemingly the berachah should have been "al bedikas chametz." We say "al biur chametz" because the search is part of a single process: whatever he finds in the search he puts away and burns the next day.
• Why there is no berachah for one going on a journey: He is not going to destroy the chametz the next day; rather he will go on using it until Pesach, and in the place he is traveling to he is not destroying it either. The berachah therefore does not fit, and it is recited only at the bedikah of the night of the fourteenth.
• The measure of thirty days: One who leaves within thirty days before Pesach must search, out of concern that he may return home. A person may change his mind and come back home close to Pesach, and find himself in a house that was never searched.
• One who leaves more than thirty days before: He need not search; he simply locks up his house and goes.
• A comparison to the reading of the Megillah: Regarding Megillas Esther we learn from the verse "to observe these days of Purim in their appointed times" that there is room to read as early as the eleventh, but that is a special law derived from the verse, and one cannot extend it to our topic. Here the measure is thirty days.

Why we search even though he nullified the chametz

• The concern that prompted the takanah of bedikah: Perhaps in the middle of Pesach it will turn out that a slice of bread or a wafer remained in the house. Or he may regret his bittul so that his nullification was not wholehearted, or out of the habit of the whole year he may absentmindedly put it into his mouth.
• The difficulty of habit: Tosafos point out that this is a serious problem: something a person is used to all year long suddenly becomes forbidden to him for a week.
• All three actions together: Therefore we do bittul and also bedikah and biur, each one coming to prevent a different possible mishap. Nowadays we also sell the chametz, so that we have bittul, sale and bedikah.

The scope of the obligation to search (se'if 3)

"One searches every place where there is reason to suspect that chametz was brought in. Therefore all the rooms of the house and the upper stories require searching, since at times a person enters them with bread in his hand. But wine cellars from which one does not draw... do not require searching."
(Shulchan Aruch)

• The standard: The search is required in places where there is a concern that chametz was brought in. A person does not have to pry tiles off the wall because of far fetched worries; he should act with a settled mind.
• A wine cellar: The Gemara is speaking of someone who sends the attendant to bring wine from the cellar, and the attendant eats there and leaves bread behind. In a cellar from which no one draws, there is no such concern.
• A place where it is clear there is no chametz: If a person is certain that all year long no chametz is brought in there, for instance a safe into which food is never put, no search is needed.
• Doubt regarding chametz: The poskim are extremely careful with chametz, so even a slight doubt is worth checking. But where there is complete certainty that no chametz got in there, we do not burden the person, since the bedikah as a whole is a considerable exertion.

Holes in the house and protruding ledges (se'if 4)

"Holes in the house and protruding ledges, the small ones that are neither very high nor very low, require searching. But the high ones that a person's hand does not reach, and the low ones below three tefachim, do not require searching."
(Shulchan Aruch)

• The common case: A wall unit or a heavy cabinet behind which chametz may have fallen or on top of which it may have been placed, and which takes several people to move.
• The basis of the leniency: The main concern is that he will see the chametz on Pesach and come to eat it. Where a person's hand does not reach, that concern does not exist.
• Even with definite chametz: Some poskim have said that even if it is known that there is chametz there, and even if he sees it with his own eyes, if it can only be reached with very great difficulty, and he has nullified his chametz, he need not exert himself. All the more so nowadays, when everyone also sells his chametz in the communal sale, so that we have two factors in his favor: bittul and sale.
• Not fit for a dog to eat: If the chametz left in such a place is already unfit for a dog to eat, that is a further ground for leniency.
• The balance: This is not a blanket leniency, but neither should one be excessively stringent.

Shuls and batei midrash (se'if 10)

"Synagogues and study halls require searching, because the children bring chametz into them."
(Shulchan Aruch)

• The reality today: It is not only the children. In shuls people hold seudah shelishis, kiddushim, hachnasas sefer Torah and the like, so the concern is even more common.

"They require searching on the night of the fourteenth by candlelight. The caretakers are not careful to search at night, but rather sweep thoroughly during the day, and they are not acting properly. One must warn them about this, so that they fulfill the mitzvah of the Sages as instituted. Moreover, they may recite the berachah on this search, but they need not do bittul after the search, since they cannot nullify and declare ownerless chametz that is not theirs."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 43)

• Daytime cleaning does not exempt: Even though a cleaning company was hired and cleaned thoroughly during the day, the obligation to search on the night of the fourteenth remains in force. The same applies in a private home: even though the house is spotless, one is obligated to search on the night of the fourteenth, and for the sake of the berachah the custom is to put out pieces of bread.
• Bittul in the shul: They do not do bittul after the search, since the chametz found there is not theirs but belongs to some congregant who forgot it, and a person cannot declare ownerless something that is not his.
• Appointing an agent: One may appoint an agent to search the shul, and one who takes the trouble to search himself, praiseworthy is he.
• The question of the berachah for one who searched his own home: Regarding someone who searched his home and came straight over to search the shul, opinions differ: some say that since he came directly from his house he does not recite the berachah again, and some say that he does, similar to the discussion about someone who owns a store. In practice, there is no loss in reciting the berachah and no loss in refraining from it; the main thing is that the search be done. The one who searches thereby fulfills the obligation on behalf of all the members of the shul.

"And if one transgressed and did not search the synagogues and study halls on the night of the fourteenth, he may search on the day of the fourteenth by daylight and need not search by candlelight, since it is customary to have many windows in them and there is a great deal of light."
(Mishnah Berurah)

(Some have noted that not in every shul is the light coming from the windows sufficient for searching during the day.)

One who sweeps his room on the thirteenth of Nissan (se'if 11)

"One who sweeps his room on the thirteenth of Nissan intending to check for the chametz and destroy it, and is careful not to bring chametz in there, nevertheless must search on the night of the fourteenth."
(Shulchan Aruch)

"Nevertheless he must search, because sweeping is not a complete bedikah, since perhaps chametz remained in some crevice... And even if he searched by candlelight in the holes and cracks, he too must search again at night like all of Israel, so as not to draw distinctions between one search and another."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 45)

• We do not override a takanah of the Sages: Even someone who cleaned everything is not exempt from the search on the night of the fourteenth.
• And the reverse: One should not conclude from here that there is no point in cleaning. Cleaning and bedikah are two separate matters, and one who cleans in the weeks beforehand finds his search that much easier.
• Chametz in crevices: The concern that "perhaps chametz remained in some crevice" is less common today, since floors are laid with tightly fitted tiles and there is no need to clean the gaps between them, and certainly things that are not chametz have no relevance to the bedikah.

"Therefore the masses are lenient to search in a cursory manner without extensive probing in holes and cracks, since beforehand they sweep and wash and clean everything thoroughly."
(Shaarei Teshuvah)

• The reality today: A truly meticulous search cannot be done in a single night: emptying out all the kitchen drawers, the refrigerator, the dishwasher, the oven, as well as the pockets of every garment. In earlier generations a person did not own everything we own today, and the search took an hour or two.
• Some are lenient: Some poskim, though not all, are lenient that since the cleaning already begins a month earlier, the search can be done in a more superficial way. And that is on condition that the work really was done properly two or three weeks beforehand.

In passing · A hotel room, the status of chametz that is not yours, and homes in Gaza

• A hotel room: One who rents a hotel room and pays for it, the room is considered his for this purpose, and the question of bedikah arises. One may rely on the hotel owner as an agent, but it is preferable to search oneself, without a berachah. If he arrived during the day he can search then, since an additional search is never a drawback, and during the day no candle is needed, just a flashlight or a strong light. In a hotel whose management is careful about halachah, someone is appointed to search the rooms. It is worth asking the hotel owner what the practice there is.
• The status of chametz after the time it becomes forbidden: The Gemara says regarding one who digs a pit in the public domain, "A pit is not in a person's domain, yet the Torah made it as if it were in his domain." One who digs a pit does not own it, and if gold falls into it he cannot claim it is his, and yet if a person is injured by it he is liable to pay. So too with chametz: after midday on the fourteenth the chametz is not his, and it is forbidden to eat, forbidden to benefit from, forbidden to sell, and worth nothing, and nevertheless if it is in his domain he transgresses over it as long as he has not destroyed it and not nullified it. Therefore someone who finds a wafer in his hotel room at a late hour cannot say "it is not mine"; he takes it and destroys it.
• Soldiers staying in homes in Gaza: A question was raised about those who enter houses that are not theirs and remain there over Pesach. An answer was cited from the army rabbi that they need not search, since the house is not theirs and the chametz is not theirs at all, comparable to someone who enters a non-Jew's courtyard where there is chametz, which is simply not his concern.
• Learning the laws of the Yom Tov: The laws of Pesach are numerous. The Arizal expounds the word "Pesach" as "peh sach," the mouth speaks, and the mitzvah of recounting the exodus from Egypt lasts the whole night. Likewise we ask and expound the laws of the festival thirty days beforehand, and even in thirty days one barely manages to cover all the halachos.