As Jews across New York City begin observing Passover, families are taking part in traditions that go far beyond the dinner table.
For eight days, those observing the holiday refrain from eating leavened grains such as wheat and oats, commemorating the biblical story of the Israelites’ exodus from slavery in Egypt, when they fled in haste and did not have time for their bread to rise. Instead, matzah — an unleavened bread — is eaten throughout the holiday.
In the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, Shmuly Rosenstein begins preparing weeks in advance.
What You Need To Know
Jews are observing Passover by avoiding leavened foods and eating matzah to mark the exodus from Egypt
Families, like the Rosensteins, prepare by cleaning their homes and removing all traces of “chametz”
Some sell their remaining chametz through a rabbi and buy it back after the holiday
The rituals, including a final search and burning of bread, carry both physical and spiritual meaning
The process, he said, starts with a shift in shopping habits.
“We’ll start winding down,” he said. “We’ll start buying stuff that are more neutral and yeah, definitely we keep an eye on it.”
As Passover approaches, Rosenstein only buys items marked with symbols indicating they are kosher for the holiday.
Days before Passover begins, the focus turns to cleaning — a meticulous effort to remove any trace of “chametz,” or leavened grain products, from the home.
That includes not just visible crumbs, but deep cleaning and preparing the kitchen in a process known as “kashering.”
“For example, the stove, we will light the fire on high for about 10, 15 minutes, burn it out, and then we could use it for Passover. The oven, here we have a self-clean oven. You put it on, it goes about 900 degrees for about three hours, and then you could use it. You clean out the front, the door, and then you could use it,” he said. “The counters have to be cleaned and then covered.”
During the holiday, parts of Rosenstein’s kitchen are effectively sealed off. Cabinets containing chametz are taped shut, and sections of the refrigerator are covered in foil.
“These cabinets are not ours. This is what we sold to the non-Jew for the holiday,” he said.
Rather than discard all leavened products, many observant Jews symbolically sell them through a rabbi.
“The whole community goes to the rabbi, and we make him our messenger, and we put our address and what we’re selling, and the rabbi then goes to the non-Jew, sells it to him, and they have a process where they will buy it back from him after the holiday, and that’s how it works,” he said.
The night before Passover, the family conducts a final search for any remaining crumbs.
Rosenstein’s wife and daughters hide 10 pieces of bread around the house, while he and his sons search for them using a candle, feather and wooden spoon, reciting blessings before and after.
The collected pieces are placed in a bag to be burned the next morning.
At the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights, members of the community gather to dispose of their final chametz in a communal fire.
“We’re going to take the bag and we’re going to put it into the fire. It’s a big fire here. It looks like it’s burning. And after a couple of seconds that we think it’s burned, we’ll say the prayer,” Rosenstein said.
Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for Chabad-Lubavitch, said the ritual carries a deeper meaning.
“The search for these leaven items, or shedding them and getting rid of them, are more than just searching for the bread in our home, which we have to do, but also looking internally and ridding ourselves from that arrogance that we might have and really refining ourselves. and that’s what leaven items that are puffed up represent,” Seligson said.