Coronavirus: Kashrut and Seder Seminars / Online Shtar Harsha’ah / Siyyum Bechorim / Tradition

March 18, 2020

Kashrut Seminars
As there will be people in your community who are making Pesach at home for the first time (in a long time), it may be beneficial to offer online webinars reviewing the laws and demonstrating hekhsher kelim and reviewing how to prepare and lead a seder.
The OU Kashrut Department offers online seminars designed and delivered specifically for your community on matters related to Pesach (kashering, food products, etc.) or on general matters of kashrut. Please contact our chaver Rav Eli Eleff, OU Kosher Rabbinic Coordinator and Consumer Relations Administrator, at koshereducation@ou.org.

Shtar Harsha’ah
Because of the current situation, ba’alei battim will be appointing their rav as their agent to sell chametz through email, telephone, fax or on line. Rav Schachter indicated that although no kinyan is necessary, Rav Soloveitchik preferred that at the time the owner appoints the rav as his agent that the owner perform a kabbalat kinyan with any Jew with whom he may have contact.
Here are links to some shtarei harsha’ah that may be helpful.

• Form in Hebrew (nusach of Rav Yehoshua Baumol, זצ”ל, author of Shu”t Emek Halachah and grandfather of Rav Norman Lamm), click here.
• Shtar of the Rabbanut Harashit, click here.
• For forms specifically designed for the internet, click here and here
• For online forms in English by our own chaverim, click here and here.

For the article “The Mechiras Chometz of Three Gedolim” By Rav Shaya Siff, click here.

Siyum Bechorim
It is very likely that many of the siyumim on Erev Pesach will take place online. (No minyan is required and kaddish need not be recited.) Some suggestions:

• Arrange for a webcast, teleconference or Facebook Live for your own siyyum.
• Encourage your ba’alei battim to make their own siyyumim. Offer a daily shi’ur to help them complete a short masekhta, a sefer in Tanakh with a peirush, etc.
• Artscroll is offering a free download of one masekhta of a person’s choice.
• Rav Yoseph Eliyahu Henkin, zt”l (Kisvei HaGaon Rav Y.E. Henkin, vol. 2:31) maintains that redeeming the fast with charity (i.e. donating to charity an amount that equals what one typically eats during the course of a day) is actually the most recommended course of action. See here.
• If you will not be in a position to have a siyyum in your kehillah, contact me and I will share links with you for online siyyumim, Likewise, if you would like to give others an opportunity to join your siyyum, email me as well.

TraditionWe have made the entire Fall 2019 issue free and open access, including the entire “Rupture and Reconstruction” symposium. Please feel free to share it.
https://traditiononline.org/archives/?_sft_category=fall-2019-issue-51-4&_sf_ppp=30