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Mar 12, 2013

New chumra: Rent a shtreimel for Pesach

I am impressed with the ability of some businesses to find unique ways to generate more business.

Mynet reports that a hat store called "Pe'er HaShtreimlach" has come up with a new chumra for Pesach that will likely generate a lot of business for them. While there has always been a hat cleaning service that many people would use before Pesach, and there has been a shtreimel cleaning service, now there is something even better.

Shtreimels present a unique challenge for Pesach, and it seems even a thorough cleaning might not be enough. I don't know how food gets on top of an adults head, unless he is involved in regular food fights, but kernels of wheat or barley, or soup nuts perhaps, can easily find their way into the fur of the shtreimel and get stuck there. A good cleaning might get it out, but it might not, if the soup nut is embedded too deeply in the fur.

So, Pe'er Hashtreimlach has come up with a solution. You can now rent a hat or a shtreimel form them for the duration of Pesach.

There is no longer need to worry about cleaning your hat or being concerned about possibly missing a soup nut. I like it - they made up a chumra to generate more business for themselves. Smart businessmen.

We don't question peoples extreme chumrot for Pesach. Anything, or almost anything, is acceptable. This is a new chumra, but it is not nearly as way out as many others some people do...




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10 comments:

  1. >>I don't know how food gets on top of an adults head,

    I've seen chassidim place their shtreimelach on the floor next to their seats when visiting someone at a meal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. unless he is involved in regular food fights

    You mean like a tisch where everyone scrambles for sh'rayyim?

    ReplyDelete
  3. As it is impossible to properly clean ones beard to ensure there are no crumbs in it, there is a minhag to shave off one's beard prior to Pesach. Some have the minhag to shave it off a few weeks before, and stop eating chametz thus allowing a chametz free beard to grow back prior to Pesach. Some particulalry pious individuals who do not want to have to shave their beard off simply refrain from eating chametz all year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beards should be declared to be assur lest a crumb be found in one of them on Pesach. Even possession of a SINGLE crumb of chametz is assur m'doraisa!

      Delete
    2. is there a problem with gebrochts if a crumb falls into the beard and then one showers?

      Delete
    3. !

      I often wondered how people who eat no gebroks wash their dishes.

      Delete
  4. It is not a new minhag - I have a photo of Moshe Rabeinu himself renting a clean streimel for Pessach from this very company.
    In fact I think renting shtreimel is a basic requirement, not a Chumra, and our grandparents have been doing it since time immorial. The fact that you never heard of this minhag before and it doesn't make sense to you shows that You have been on the Internet too long and suffer from the ability to think rationally.

    ReplyDelete
  5. rent a streimel? i think it comes a distant second to the pre pesach colonoscopy currently offered in beitar.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The rector of the local parish church here in Jersey is a regular reader of www.lifeinisrael.blogspot.co.uk I have been waiting for him to get in touch, asking for clarifications on this report.

    How should I answer him, I wonder? I am soooo tempted to let him think that the whole thread, including your comments, are Torah miSinai.

    ReplyDelete
  7. There's actually a famous story of a chosson who had wheat kernels stuck in his shtreimel which fell into the soup pot (which had the food for the whole meal), and they went to Rav Shmuel Salant IIRC. He replaced the food with his own food.
    Apparently the minhag was to throw wheat kernels at the aufruf, and he hadn;t cleaned his shtreimel since then.

    ReplyDelete

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