Advocating for a simple Judaism

It is that time of year again.

You know - the time of year when everybody (at least in the religious/yeshivish communities in Israel) picks up a certain crazy chumroh that has little basis in halacha but has gained strong social standing. The kind that if you do not keep it, people try to make you feel as if you are less religious, not trustworthy, a meikil, someone in whose house they would not eat, etc.

you ask - what could this guy possibly be talking about? Pesach has already passed with its crazy chumrohs so what could be such a crazy chumroh now in the quiet sefirah season?

You had to ask, didn't you? Now I will have to tell you.

Flour ground after Pesach. That's it. That's the chumroh.

People do not want to purchase flour or chametz that had been sold over Pesach to a goy and insist on only purchasing flour and chametz products that are labelled that they are from wheat ground after Pesach.
They then add to their personal preference of buying such products the idea that if someone else does not they must be relying on a mechiras chametz which is a big kula, if it is valid at all, and therefore they must not be reliable people or frum enough. I might add that I have not yet heard of a child being thrown out of cheder because the parents were caught buying chametz that had been sold over Pesach, but I would not be surprised if it did happen.

A Mother in Israel wrote about this trend and suggests people support the storekeepers who do sell their chametz. I totally agree.

The chumroh has little basis in halacha. It is mostly based on the idea that some people consider the sale of chametz fictitious and on that assumption, any chametz sold to a goy should not be eaten after Pesach.

I personally feel that if we force storeowners to sell their chametz, and we do as we will not patronize a restaurant or supermarket that does not have a "sold chametz for Pesach" sign up, then we have no right afterwards to tell them that now that you sold your chametz I cannot eat that chametz. What right do we have to force them (the ones who do not want to) to do so if we will not support them afterwards?

Much ink has been spilled over the years regarding the issue of whether the sale of chametz is fictitious or real. Most poskim are of the opinion that it is real and the sale is valid. Based on that one is allowed to eat chametz that had been sold for Pesach. I will note that this chumroh is not sponsored by any kashrut organization. Even the most machmir organizations such as the Badat'z Eidah Charedit gives hechsher to food products of chametz that had been sold for Pesach. The chumroh is insisted upon by the yeshivish public and is almost baseless.

I will also add that many organizations that provide the hechsher for such a chumroh (including the Badat'z among others - just because they do not insist on it does not mean they will not offer the hechsher for such products that do fit the chumroh) have said in the past (I read an interview last year with a rep from the Badat'z) that even if someone thinks he is being machmir and refraining from eating chametz that had been sold, he is only fooling himself.

One who really wanted to adhere to such a chumroh would only eat matza and butter until Shavuos, he said. He added that after Pesach everyone is up in arms over this and loud about it and insistent on not buying flour unless is says "ground after Pesach" and all that jazz, but, he added, the companies are not willing to take the unnecessary loss on those products they sold for Pesach. So, he said, they might shelve the products that had been sold for Pesach for a while, but after a month or so when everything quiets down and people stop looking at the labels, they will bring all those products back to the shelves and you will be buying the same things you refused to buy a few weeks earlier.

It is rumored that Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l was supposedly machmir on this chumroh not to purchase chametz that had been sold for Pesach. When discussing this with someone they showed me something from the newest volume of the sefer Halichos Shlomo that is written by a student of Rav Auerbach's about the psakim of Rav Auerbach. They showed me that he writes there that this chumroh is one that if someone wants to adhere to he should do so privately and not insist on other people doing so. As well, this chumroh is only relevant for actual chametz (like bread) and not flour.

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Update: My son called me a little while ago from school. His rebbe had purchased some wafers to distribute among the class. The wafers have the hechsher of the Badat'z Eida haCharedit. The package said it was made from flour that was ground after Pesach, yet the date of manufacture was from a week before Pesach! You tell me there is not some fake chumroh happening!
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Another factor is the appearance. By insisting on such a chumroh we are being "motzi laaz" to a certain extent on previous generations of frum jews who sold their chametz and bought it back after Pesach and ate such chametz and did not adhere to this chumroh. We are, in a sense, saying we are better than them. We are saying they did not behave properly in eating chametz that had been sold for Pesach.
Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach refused to pressure the kashrus organizations to implement a labelling system by which one would be able to understand from the codes which foods were from after Pesach and which had been sold for Pesach. His reasoning for not playing along with this scheme, he writes, is that he does not want to be a part of something that puts the validity of the sale of chametz in doubt when all the gedolim of previous generations relied on such sales and somebody who wishes to be machmir for himself should figure out on his own which foods are acceptable to him.

It is time to advocate for a return to a simple Judaism.