Tel Aviv [Israel], April 22: As in every year, Israel’s two chief rabbis “sold” all of the country’s chametz to a non-Jewish person ahead of the Passover holiday.
Chametz is defined as anything that is made with one of the five grains – wheat, barely, rye, oats and spelt – that was not made into the Passover unleavened Matzah bread in accordance with Jewish law.
It is prohibited to have Chametz in one’s possession during the week-long holiday, even if it is put somewhere far away and out of sight. So, people are permitted to effectively “sell” their chametz for the duration of the holiday in order to avoid any financial loss that could come if they were to need to just through everything out.
The idea is that any such items that one owns will technically belong to the non-Jewish purchaser during ther holiday. The purchaser then “fails” to make the payment for the Chametz before the holiday ends and so it reverts back to its owners.
The chametz sold by the chief rabbis was that belonging to any government such by government ministries, government bodies as well as the bodies and people who authorized the chief rabbis to sell the chametz for them, to the non-Jewish man Hossein Jaber, a resident of Arab village Abu Gush located just west of Jerusalem.
