Apr 6, 2009

A Couple of Questions

I have a couple of questions maybe someone could help me with:

1. Why do we call it "Bedikas Chametz" rather than something like "Chipus Chametz"? Bedika is more like an inspection of an item to see if it is chametz or not. Chipus is to search for chametz. When we overturn the house and do a bedikas chametz, it is really a chipus chametz. I have an idea or two, but am looking for something better before I share my thoughts.

2. Why do we make such a big deal about Birkat Hachama and make communal get-togethers everywhere to say the bracha? Why do we not do the same, even at a smaller level, for birkat Ha'ilanot? That is fairly rare as well - it is a brach a we say only once a year. Yet we do not see big gatherings being arranged on Rosh Chodesh Nissan to say Birkat Ha'Ilanot as a community. Why do we do this by Birkat Hachama?
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5 comments:

  1. LBApril 06, 2009 9:21 PM

    1. I think it's simply because we clean well before that night, and we're just checking to make sure there is no more chametz around (to be seen or to be found...).

    2. I don't have an answer to your primary question - but when I was living on a dati moshav, we did, in fact get together for birkat hailanot - after shul, there would be a kiddush in a family's yard with fruit trees, and we would say it.

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  2. Yehudi YerushalmiApril 06, 2009 11:39 PM

    Bedikat (HaBayit, Avur) Chametz

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  3. AnonymousApril 07, 2009 12:12 AM

    28 years is a big chunk of our lives and I've heard that the point of making a big deal of Birchas Hachama is so we can look back and remember where we were 28 years ago (because we make a big deal about everyone remembers) and look at ourselves now - and ask ourselves did I grow spiritually or am I fairly on the same level as I was way back then?

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  4. AnonymousApril 07, 2009 5:50 AM

    Perhaps birkas hachama is communal because it is so questionable - maybe the cycle isn't 28 years, maybe our count of years in the calendar is incorrect, maybe Tishrei is the true time of creation of the world, etc. By doing it together, just one person can make the beracha and the others can answer amen.

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  5. AnonymousApril 07, 2009 9:31 AM

    My company went out on a tiyul for Rosh Chodesh Nissan to make the bracha in an orchard.

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