This week’s Torah portion talks about the mitzva not to eat Chametz on Pesach. (Shmos 13,3)

There is a mitzva to burn Chametz on Erev Pesach. One lesson behind this mitzva is that we should remove from our homes and hearts anything that can cause a spiritual or moral hazard. (Click HERE for inspirational stories about the mitzva to destroy Chametz and eat Matza.)

This brings us to the following true dilemma. Yackov once took his family to a large public burning of Chometz, Yackov brought a large box filled with many packages of cookies with him. In front of his children, he threw the  large box of cookies into the fire. Shortly after the box was thrown in, a Jewish person watching, looked at the box and took it out of the fire.
“Why did you take my chametz out of the fire?” Yackov asked.
“These cookies are actually kosher for Passover”. The man answered. “I know that my family would appreciate these kosher for pesach cookies”.

Yackov was about to ask the man to return the box, but then felt torn inside. On one hand he wanted to ask the man to give him the cookies back. He thought they were chametz but he was mistaken. Had he known that they were kosher for pesach he never would have tried to burn them. But on the other hand by throwing the cookies into the fire he was being mafkir, them, relinquishing his ownership over them, so maybe he didn’t have a right to ask for them back.

Yackov wanted to now if he had a right to ask the man to give the cookies back to him.

What do you think?

See Chashukei Chemed Pesachim page 370.

Answer to last week’s moral dilemma:

(click here to review the question)

This question is discussed in See Chashukei Chemed Pesachim page 199
Rav Zilberstein writes that according to the Chazon Ish, one would be  required to die rather than reveal the information. That is because giving the information is akin to actual murder.
But according to the Yaavetz one should give the information rather than die, particularly because it is not an absolute certainty that anyone will die because of this information.Have a beautiful shabbos!

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