Checking details as Pesach nears

The Young Israel of Woodmere pulsed with pre-Pesach activity on Sunday, as scribes checked the kashrut of tefillin and mezuzzot, vendors collected sheimot or sheimos (worn out Hebrew books and papers that must buried in a cemetery) and tested for sha’atnez (the forbidden mixture of wool and linen in one garment) and food drives involving both chametz and Passover items were underway.

Several Five Towns shuls partipated, including Aish Kodesh, Anshei Chesed, Bais Tefilah, Beis Ephraim Yitzchak, the Irving Place Minyan, Young Israel of Hewlett and the Young Israel of Woodmere, according to Rabbi Aaron Glatt, M.D., assistant to the rabbi at YIW and Chief Administrative officer at Mercy Medical Center.

Glatt said this program has been held for 20 years, close to the yahrtzeit, leilui nishmat (elevation of the soul) of Rabbi Glatt’s father Yosef Nissan ben Yechezkel.

As we search for chametz, we should take time to check ourselves for “chametz” and to do physical mitzvot, Glatt said, adding that chazal (the rabbis) suggest it’s an opportune time to deal with the particular commandments involving tefillin and mezzuzot. Typically 30 to 50 pairs of Tefillin and several hundred mezuzot are checked, he said, and there’s “lots of shatnez testing and a truckload of shaimos.”

Glatt said that the sofrim (scribes who check, correct or write, tefillin and mezuzot) often find errors in the klaf (parchment). “It’s a great opportunity to correct issurim dorayta (Torah commandments) that people are doing [wrong] unintentionally but it’s still an aveirah (sin).” He explained that there are different opinions regarding how often to check mezuzot and tefillin, adding,

“They should ask their own posek (Jewish legal decisor) what is applicable to their situation.”

He stressed the importance of checking garments for shatnez, noting that any article of clothing may combine wool and linen. “It’s prevalent, it’s not unheard of,” he said. “You have to speak with a shatnez person. You can’t assume it doesn’t have shatnez just because it doesn’t say it on the label.”