pesah

More than any other Jewish holiday, Pesah starts with days and weeks of preparations. This page is intended to organize in one place many resources that will be handy in planning for Pesah. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Incidentally, a very nice way to dispose of your hametz in advance of Pesah is by donating it to a local food pantry - a list of many of them is posted here (call in advance to verify what they will accept and when they are open).

Selling hametz

Since ownership of hametz (bread and other leavened products) is not allowed during Pesah, ideally all hametz in one's possession should be given away or destroyed before the holiday begins. Because this often represents a financial hardship, the practice arose for people to store away their hametz before Pesah and arrange to sell it to a non-Jew for the duration of the holiday. As Jewish law requires various conditions for such a sale to be effective, most Jewish communities offer to arrange the sale of hametz on behalf of their members; one person acts as an agent and sells your hametz for you. To arrange to have an agent appointed for you through the minyan, just fill out and submit this form.

It is customary when arranging for the sale of hametz to make a donation to a charity that provides food for the hungry. You can also fulfill this mitzvah online by making a donation to Yad Chessed, a local institution in Boston that has a Ma'ot Chittim program (loosely translated, it means bread money). They are completely volunteer-run, so 100% of your donation will be used to provide food for the hungry. You can donate using the Contribute link on their website.

Finding a seder

There are a number of communal Passover seders in the area - see our Jewish Cambridge page to contact other institutions hosting communal seders. You can also find listings of Passover seders in the greater Boston area from Shalom Boston.



Pesah cleaning and other preparation

We are happy to provide a complete guide to preparing for Pesah, adapted from one created for Kehilat Hadar in New York. The guide includes information on cleaning for Pesah and searching for hametz (including the blessings and texts recited then). In addition, there is a one-page supplement with times for searching for and disposing of hametz, plus holiday candlelighting, keyed to Cambridge this year. Finally, you can find a variety of lists of kosher for Passover food, and other information, at Kashrut.com.


Fast of the Firstborn

It is traditional for those who are first-born (bechorim) to fast on the day before Pesah, in remembrance of being saved from the final plague in Egypt. (Incidentally, the midrash says that both women and men were affected by this plague, and the Shulhan Arukh brings the opinion that therefore women who are first-born should fast as well.) However, the widespread custom is for the first-born to participate in a siyum (completion of a major cycle of Jewish learning) on that day, and the siyum is concluded with a meal (with hametz!). The obligation to eat at a siyum supersedes the fast, hence it is a widespread practice to arrange a siyum for the morning before Pesah. Generally both the Tremont Street shul in Cambridge and KI in Brookline organize a siyum following morning minyan - contact them for more details.