Pesach

Happy Pesach, all! May your next week be full of joy and matzah, in about that order.

Let me share with you my non-professional summary of one of my very favorite Talmud passages (the other is the one about how many sins can one person commit at once? A Kohen is eating a tithed fruit on Yom Kippur while wearing shatnez and....)

The rabbis of old engaged in a lengthy debate about rodents and wheaty goodness in one's house on Pesach. For instance, if a rodent leaves crumbs, must you search the house again? What if a white mouse comes in and a black mouse leaves? What if there is also a weasel, which eats mice? What if....

And the answer, in the end, is, "Come on, people. Don't be CRAZY."

(Were we to suspect [that chametz would be taken] from house to house, we would also have to suspect [that chametz might be taken] from city to city. There is no end to the matter. -- There is always the possibility that chametz will be taken from one house to another. Hence, the Sages decided to ignore this possibility entirely.)