Question: May you burn your chametz at a public chametz burning location in the neighborhood?
Short Answer: While Rav Moshe Sternbuch shlita expresses certain hesitations about public burnings, most poskim permit these burnings as a valid (if not optimal) method of burning the chametz.
Explanation:
I. Background
The Mishnah (P’sachim 21a) cites a machlokes how the mitzvah of Tashbisu – ridding/destroying chametz – is satisfied. While Rabbi Yehudah holds that you must burn the chametz, the Chachamim hold that you may get rid of it any way, including throwing it into the wind or the sea.
The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim 445:1) holds like the Chachamim, that the chametz may be destroyed/ridded by throwing it into the wind or the sea. The Rama, however, adds that the minhag is to burn the chametz. The Mishnah B’rurah (6) explains that the Rama is concerned for the opinion of many Rishonim who pasken like Rabbi Yehudah, that chametz is like nosar (the left-over korban) that must be burned.
The contours of this burning are unclear. May you simply throw your chametz into the big burning fire in your neighborhood, which was started by someone else for the benefit of safety in the community? Or, must you light your own fire on your own property?
Rav Moshe Sternbuch shlita, throughout his different s’farim, suggests two reasons why a public fire burning might be problematic.
II. Not Your Property
In T’shuvos V’Hanhagos (1:292), Rav Sternbuch suggests that the Tashbisu must be performed on the owner’s property. He cites the Ramban and the Gra who imply that the phrase “tashbisu s’or mi’bateichem” teaches that the chametz must be removed from your HOUSE. Once the chametz is already removed from your property, you cannot fulfill Tashbisu and therefore you do not get the benefit of the Rama’s ruling (of specifically burning it) by burning it off your property.
However, Rav Sternbuch mentions that certain rabbanim disagree and hold that the Chachamim are clear that Tashbisu need not be on the owner’s property. Indeed, one of the methods of destruction is throwing the chametz into the sea, which is certainly not on the owner’s property. Rav Sternbuch does not agree. According to Rabbi Yehudah, the chametz must be burned, and this burning must take place on the owner’s property or in the owner’s utensil. Rav Sternbuch reiterates this chumra in later volumes as well. See T’shuvos V’Hanhagos (5:119).
The Kovetz Halachos (Pesach 9:3) says just the opposite: According to the Chachamim, perhaps removing it from your property is Tashbisu. According to Rabbi Yehudah, the burning may be done anywhere. Thus, there is no need to burn it on your own property. Burning it at a community burning is fine, both according to the Chachamim (by bringing it off your property) and Rabbi Yehudah (because you are burning it). The Kovetz Halachos thus holds that you may certainly burn it off your property.
III. Lighting The Fire
Rav Sternbuch (Moadim U’Zmanim 7:159) suggests a second reason why public burnings are problematic. By public burnings, each person is not lighting the fire but is simply throwing his chametz into an existing fire. Sometimes, but not always, the person stokes the fire with a stick or mixes up the bread. However, the person is not doing the full act of burning himself.
The Gemara (Sh’vuos 17b) discusses what act needs to be performed by korbanos. The Gemara concludes that simply stoking the ashes so that it burns more quickly is sufficient to be considered performing the avodah. Rav Sternbuch posits that perhaps we can extrapolate to chametz, that you don’t need a full-fledged lighting by each person, and stoking the fire is sufficient. He rejects this proposed leniency, however, because by chametz you need an act of burning, not just the end result of the chametz being burned.
He proves this idea – that simply stoking is insufficient to be “action” by fire – by citing the Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 418:10) that a person who lights a fire that could cause damage is liable for that damage even though a second person added fuel to the fire.
However, Rav Sternbuch ultimately retracts and holds that burning chametz is no different from a maakeh (according to the Machaneh Efraim), where the mitzvah is simply the end result, not the act of doing/making it. Thus, even a non-Jew may throw your chametz into the community burning, as long as your chametz is ultimately burned. In the end, though, it appears that Rav Sternbuch requires the owner to do some act to facilitate the burning, such as stoking the fire a bit.
IV. Neighbors Complaining
Rav Mordechai Gross (Igresa D’Chedvasa, Vol. 26, p. 56) explains that even though some poskim are against public burnings, a person may not burn his chametz in his own jointly owned courtyard where neighbors complain about the smoke. Since burning bread is not a normal activity of the courtyard, the neighbors have rights to protest such activity. It is better to burn the chametz in such a situation at a public burning out of the courtyard.
Rabbi Ephraim Glatt, Esq. is the Associate Rabbi at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, and he is a Partner at McGrail & Bensinger LLP, specializing in commercial litigation. Questions? Comments? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
