From what I understand, the unleavened bread requirement of Passover originally meant not leaving the dough out, since the yeast in the air got into the dough and inflated it. Nowadays, however, a large portion of baking is done with leavening agents (packaged yeast, baking soda, and baking power, to name the three that I know of).
Does the required abstanace from leavening during the Passover season only require the tossing of already leavened products or are leavening agents required to be thrown out as well? If so, what about baking soda, which is often used as a cleaning agent (in toothpaste for instance) or a descenting agent (in the fridge)?
Also, if leavening agents are required to be destroyed for Passover, what would happen if (hypothetically) the entire world suddenly converted to Judiasm? Would packaged yeast, baking soda, and baking powder supplies have to be rebuilt after each Passover season? (And yes, I’m asking this seriously )
As a side note, I’ve heard it said that the house cleaning required to remove leavened products from the home is how “spring cleaning” originated. Any truth to that?
Dunno about the spring cleaning bit. It wasn’t covered in Hebrew school.
I’m not going to address the more esoteric questions in your post. I’m sure a more knowledgeable person will be along for that.
The cleaning ritual isn’t complete destruction of all leavened foods. A small bit of bread is placed on a wooden spoon and burned. A legal fiction is created in which the remaining bread is “sold” to a non-Jew. So, you can have all the bread you want in the house, it just doesn’t belong to you, and since we don’t take things that don’t belong to us, we can’t use it. At the end of Passover, the non-Jew “sells” the bread back to the Jewish family.
Ranger, I understand that. However, there are cases were you’d have some left over by the time Passover comes around. I’m not very familiar with modern Jewish practices, but I have read the books of Moses several times and seem to remember that if this is the case, then that food is to be burned. MsRobyn’s comment seems to support this; however, the practice has become more ceremonial than actual.
But my main question, which has still gone unanswered, is whether, assuming that at some time all leavened products had to be removed (via consumption or other method) from the house by Passover or else be burned, leavening agents were to be removed/burned by that time as well. Also, I wonder about those products that contained leavening agents but where not used for leavening (i.e. baking soda in toothpase or the 'fridge).
)