Who Would Sell Their Entire Business for a Week?

The Jewish people are busy now scrubbing and cleaning their homes for Passover. To commemorate the birth of the Jewish people with the miraculous Exodus from Egypt 3,338 years ago, G-d in His Torah commanded the Jews during Passover not to eat or benefit from anything fermented and leavened. Even a slight mixture of any leavened ingredient is prohibited and even the mere presence of anything fermented must be discarded from your home because even it’s mere presence is toxic.

Bread and Matzah are made from the same ingredients even it’s Hebrew name is made up of almost the identical letters: חמץ מצה The difference between the two is that leavened bread represents ego where you put one thing in the oven and what comes out is a Madison Avenue hype, an exaggerated and inflated sense of self. Egypt represents ego, self absorption and self centeredness. The miraculous birth of Judaism and holiness, the Exodus from Egypt, begins with ego-lessness, down to earth simplicity and humility represented by the Matzah.

For thousands of years it was pretty simple to divest yourself of all leavened food in your possession either by eating it or giving it away to your non-Jewish neighbor. As life became more complex with so many individuals keeping larger quantities of leavened food for personal and for business usage destroying it or giving it all away would involve suffering tremendous financial loss. G-d never meant to ruin us financially. The Torah gives us exigencies for these unique circumstances. If we sell all our leavened products as well as the location where they are kept to a non Jew for the duration of the holiday then if he so desires he could then sell it back to the Jew after Passover.

With businesses it’s a little more complex. Any food business owned by a Jew that’s open for business during Passover selling processed food items containing fermented ingredients, no Jew is allowed to buy, use or benefit from any of those products ever.

For e.g. Manhattan Beer Distributor, the largest single-market beer distributor in the country who’s founder and CEO, Simon Bergson is Jewish, provides beer to hundreds of kosher stores and restaurants in the Metropolitan area. No Jew would be allowed to touch any of that beer until a few months after Passover when you could be sure that the beer was acquired post Passover.

There is a solution. Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld one of the senior rabbis from the OK which is one of the premier kosher certifiers in the world convinced Simon Bergson to take a well earned vacation and to sell his entire business to one of his trusted non Jewish associates for the duration of the holiday. When he returns from his vacation he buys back the business. The sale is 100% legal and enforceable by Jewish and by state law. This year will be the ninth year that Mr. Simon Bergson will be helping hundreds of thousands of Jews who live by the Torah to be able to raise a cup of beer after Passover, to celebrate and to drink Lechayim!

Locally we have the largest and most popular kosher wine store and distributor in Upper Manhattan, McCabes Wine and Spirits at Third Ave. and E. 77th St. For the second year in a row the owner, Daniel Mesznik sold his business for the duration of the Passover to his trusted associate who also has a liquor license and he will absent himself from his business during the duration of the holiday. Immediately after the holiday the Jewish community will be able to buy all the fermented products carried by McCabes.

May we internalize the spiritual freedom of Passover, take a leap forward in our personal lives, become unstuck and change our toxic behaviors, break out of our confines and limitations, touch the Divine and experience the miraculous. Enjoy your Matzah especially the hand made Matzah.

Have a Kosher, happy and a sweet Passover,

Rabbi Ben Krasnianski heads Chabad Upper East Side synagogue. If you need a Seder or want to sell your Chometz he invited you to go to their website: chabaduppereastside.com.