Technique for Leaven Search
Fun 25-second video showing a technique for picking up a piece of bread as part of the search for leaven (chametz or cho’metz in Yiddish pronunciation) that takes place on the night before the first seder.
The Mishna in Pesachim 1:1 instructs that a house be searched by the light of a candle on the 14th of Nisan. The Mishnah seems to discourage obsessive cleaning as it instructs, "No place to which hametz has not been brought need be inspected."
The Mishnah lends no validity to the kind of thinking that would lead one to ponder, "what if an animal brought chametz from one location to another?" It says that such thinking would create a situation in we could never rest for fear that the dreaded chametz could be anywhere.
And indeed, after the search for hametz has been completed, the ritual has us declare that all remaining hametz that has been been left in our posession is now no longer chametz, but is officially considered "dust of the earth."
The message seems to be, "Try your best, but then let go."
Have a sweet and liberating Passover.
Darfur