By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times We say this Aramaic text just before Pesach every year. We recite it once in the evening and again in the morning.  What is behind the wording of Bitul Chometz? According to Torah law we can dispose of our Chometz before Pesach either by Biur- destruction or by Bitul – negation. By Rabbinic law, however, we must do both – the destruction and the negation. We are all familiar with the text – we recite it in the evening after the search for Chometz, and we recite it again in the morning while we burn it. Utilizing the understanding that Chometz is representative of the Yetzer haRah – the tendency toward evil within us, the Slonimer Rebbe in his Nesivos Shalom explains that we must take both approaches to wiping out our anti-Torah tendencies and desires.  We must actively search these out within us,Bedikas Chometz, and destroy it within us using the fire of Torah and Mitzvos.  We must also negate these desires within us – as if they were nothing – like the dirt on the ground. What is perhaps shocking is that nowhere in the Babylonian Talmud is this formulation of the Bitul to be found. IS A VERBAL DECLARATION REQUIRED? There is certainly an obligation to annul the Chometz, but it seems from the Gemorah (See Psachim 6b) that this is a thinking process that did not necessarily have to be verbalized. The Ramban (Psachim 7a) actually rules that one does not require a verbal declaration at all! [The Ritvah understood his Rebbe, the Ramban, that he also meant an actual verbal declaration is required. Rav Dovid Bonfid, another student of the Ramban understands his Rebbe in its simpler implication.] The Jerusalem Talmud (Psachim 2:2), however, states just the opposite of the Ramban. The Yerushalmi quotes Rav as ruling that one must recite the formula “All Chometz that is in my house that I am not aware of shall be annulled.” To resolve the apparent contradiction, the Rosh and the Rif explain our Gemorah as stating that the annulment does require an actual verbal formulation. They differ slightly as to the verbal formula. There are actually four changes from the version in the Yerushalmi: 1] The first change is that the entire formula is no longer in the clear Hebrew that we find in the Jerusalem Talmud. The formula is now in Aramaic. 2] Another change is that the words “in my house” are now changed to “in my domain.” 3] The wording “that I am not aware of” is also changed to “That I have seen or have not seen, that I have destroyed or have not destroyed.” 4] In addition, the Rif adds the words “shall be annulled like dust” while the Rosh adds “shall be annulled like dust of the earth.” WHERE AND WHY DID THE CHANGES COME FROM? Where did these changes come from and who made them? The Rishonim all point to the previous generation of Torah scholars – the Gaonim.  The question is why?  Why did the Gaonim make these changes to the text of the bitul found in the Yerushalmi? The reason for the first change is the subject of debate. The Ramah in his Darchei Moshe writes that it […]
The post 4 Changes That Were Made in the Bitul of Chometz appeared first on The Yeshiva World.