Bei "Licht" am vierzehnten (von Nissan) [dh der Nacht, gefolgt vom vierzehnten. Die Tanna nennt es "Licht", euphemistisch, wie ein Blinder "sagi nehor" ("voller Licht") genannt wird], wird nach Chametz gesucht [Einige erklären, damit er nicht gegen das Verbot des Chametz-Seins verstößt gesehen und in seinem Haus auf Pesach gefunden. Und obwohl die Aufhebung (Bitul) selbst ausreicht, befürchten wir, dass er ein ausgesuchtes Stückchen (von Chametz) findet, seine Aufhebung bereut, daran denkt, es zu essen und gegen das Verbot verstößt, dass Chametz gesehen und gefunden wird. Deshalb wird nach Chametz gesucht, um es aus der Welt zu entfernen. Andere sagen, dass der Grund für die Suche ein Dekret ist, damit er Chametz nicht in seinem Haus findet und es isst, ohne daran gewöhnt zu sein, sich an den anderen Tagen des Jahres von Chametz zu trennen.] Im Licht einer Kerze. [Die Gemara leitet dies ab, indem sie hier geschrieben wird (2. Mose 12, 19): "Sauerteig soll nicht gefunden werden" und anderswo (1. Mose 44, 12): "und die Tasse wurde gefunden." Genau wie die Entdeckung dort durch Suchen war, nämlich. (Ebd.): "Und er hat gesucht ... und es wurde gefunden", der Befund hier erfolgt durch Suchen, und "Suchen" erfolgt (optimal) mit einer Kerze, nämlich. (Sprüche 20:27): "Die Kerze von G-tt ist die Seele eines Mannes; sie durchsucht alle seine verborgenen Vertiefungen." Und sie ordneten an, dass die Suche nachts stattfindet, weil dann jeder zu Hause gefunden wird. Und das Licht einer Kerze ist besser für die Suche bei Nacht als bei Tag, denn "Was nützt eine Kerze bei Tag?" Wenn man jedoch in der Nacht vor dem vierzehnten und am Morgen nicht gesucht hat, muss man dies auch im Licht einer Kerze tun.] Jeder Ort, an dem kein Chametz gebracht wird, erfordert keine Suche. Und warum sagten sie [unten], dass zwei Reihen [Krüge] in einem Weinkeller [übereinander angeordnet] durchsucht werden müssen, wenn an einem Ort, an dem kein Chametz gebracht wird, keine Suche erforderlich ist? Sie antworteten: Wir sprechen von einem Ort, an den Chametz gebracht wird, wie einem Weinkeller, der Wein für den Tisch liefert. Manchmal ist der Steward dabei, Wein mit seinem Laib in der Hand einzuschenken, wenn er feststellt, dass er keinen Wein mehr hat, und er geht in den Keller, um mehr zu bringen.] Beth Shammai sagt: Zwei Reihen auf dem gesamten Keller. [Es war der Weg derer, die Wein lagerten, ihre Krüge Reihe für Reihe anzuordnen, bis sie den gesamten Boden des Kellers bedeckten. Danach gingen sie zurück und stellten Krug auf Krug im gleichen Muster bis zur Decke. Die "zwei Reihen" von Beth Shammai sind die äußere Reihe vom Boden bis zur Decke und dann die obere Reihe, die Länge und Breite des Weinkellers, so dass die "zwei Reihen" wie ein griechisches Gamma sind, eine senkrecht; die andere horizontal.] Beth Hillel sagt: Die beiden äußeren oberen Reihen, [die oberste Reihe in der Nähe der Decke, gegenüber dem Eingang, und die Reihe darunter. Und die drinnen sucht er überhaupt nicht. Und von den äußeren durchsucht er allein die beiden oberen Reihen.]
Tosafot Yom Tov on Mishnah Pesachim
The night of the 14th of Nisan - the Rav Bartenura wrote that the Hebrew word 'ohr' chosen here to begin the Mishna of Pesachim is a pleasant, euphemistic word that means night or darkness. Rambam wrote that this was done so that Pesachim would not begin with an absence, darkness being the absence of light. HaRav Zerachiya haLevi and the Ran wrote that this was done based on the verse in Tehillim 119:39, "The beginning of your word gives light."
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
אור לארבעה עשר – the night of its morrow will be the fourteenth [of Nisan], and the Tanna [of our Mishnah] calls night, “light” in the manner that we call a blind person “capable of eye-sight,” and he took/used the more appropriate expression.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
Introduction
As do several tractates, Pesahim begins chronologically with the events that lead up to the beginning of Pesah namely checking the house to make sure there is no chametz on the night before Pesah. As many of you know, this is still a custom today. Even though most Jews have thoroughly checked their homes for chametz and removed (or put it away to be sold no one sold their chametz in mishnaic and talmudic times) they still ritually check the home with a candle, or perhaps a flashlight, and remove any chametz found on the search.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
בודקין את החמץ – there are those who explain the reason of searching [for the Hametz/leavened products] in order that he not transgress “lest any [leaven] be found” (see Exodus 13:7: “[Throughout the seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten; no leavened bread shall be found with you,] and no leaven shall be [seen, literally] found/ולא יראה לך [in all your territory,) and “lest it (i.e., leaven) be seen” (see Exodus 12:19 – “שבעת ימים שאר לא ימצא בבתיכם” /”No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days…”) if there would be leavened products in his home during Passover. And even though mere nullification is sufficient, we are suspicious lest he find a white and delicate bread (i.e., a roll) and he will reconsider his nullification and think about it to eat it and violate [the Biblical injunction of] “lest it be seen with you, lest it be found with you” (see Exodus 13:7 and Exodus 12:19 above). Therefore, we search for the leavened products in order that he may remove it from the world. And there are those who say that the reason for searching [for Hametz] is a decree lest he find leavened products in his house during Passover and would eat them, since he is not accustomed to abstain from them all the rest of the days of the year.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
On the evening of the fourteenth [of Nissan] they search they house for chametz by the light of a lamp. The house is to be thoroughly searched for chametz the evening before the fourteenth of Nissan, the day on which the chametz must be destroyed. In rabbinic times, a lamp was considered the most effective means by which to search the corners of the house, the nooks and crannies, the cracks and crevices to discover hidden chametz. Their houses were obviously less lit than ours and they had fewer windows. Candlelight would, at least according to the Mishnan, have been most effective. Furthermore, at night most people are home from work and can participate in searching for the chametz. Finally, we would do well to remember that people kept far less food in their homes and generally had far simpler material lives than we do now. It may just be that they didn’t even need to begin cleaning at all until the evening before Pesah. Ahh, the good old days!
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
לאור הנר – In the Gemara ( Talmud Pesahim 2a), it derives that the search for Hametz must be by the light of a candle, since it is written here (Exodus 12:12: "שאר לא ימצא" / “no leaven shall be found” and it is written there (Genesis 44:12): “וימצא הגביע [באמתחת בנימן] / “and the goblet turned up in Benjamin’s bag,” Just as “something found” which is said there, is through searching, as it says, ‘And [the goblet] turned up,” so too, “something found” which is mentioned here, is through searching, and searching is done by a candle, as it is written (Proverbs 20:17)– "נר ה' נשמת אדם"/”The life-breath of man is the lamp (literally, “candle”) of God [revealing the innermost parts].” And they established, that the search is at night, since at night all the people are found in their homes, and the light of a candle is nicer for a search than during the day, for a lamp at noon – what good is it? But however, if he did not search [for Hametz] on the night of the fourteenth [of Nisan] and he searched on the fourteenth in the morning, he has to search also by the light of a candle.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
Every place into which chametz is not brought does not require searching, There is no need to check places into which chametz is never or almost never brought.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
ולמה אמרו – further on in our Mishnah
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
So why did they rule: two rows of the wine cellar [must be searched]? [This is actually] a place into which chametz might be taken. The mishnah raises a difficulty with the previous statement. There is an older mishnah according to which two rows of the wine cellar must be searched. We would think that the wine cellar is a place into which chametz is not brought and therefore there is no need for it to be searched. The mishnah answers that this older mishnah refers to a cellar into which chametz actually is brought.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
שתי שורות – of wine jugs that are arranged this one on top of that in the wine store-room/cellar one must search between them, for after we said [in the Mishnah], “every place where we don’t bring in Hametz, there is no need for a search,” why did they require of us to search there? And we respond: They did not say [that we do not have to search] other than in a store-room/cellar where we bring in leavened products/Hametz, like a store-room/cellar from which he supplies wine for his table and the sometimes when the servant stands to pour it and his bread is in his hand , and when the wine is finished, he enters into the store-room/cellar to bring wine.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
Bet Shammai say: two rows over the front of the whole cellar; But Bet Hillel say: the two outer rows, which are the uppermost. In the final section of the mishnah, Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel debate how much of the wine cellar must be searched. There are two interpretations to this debate in the Talmud. According to the first interpretation, Bet Shammai says that they search the entire first row, from ceiling to floor and the row behind it. Both these rows are checked from wall to wall. According to the second interpretation, the two rows are perpendicular to each other the top row and the row next to the entrance. The sages also debate the interpretation of Bet Hillel. Some explain that according to Bet Hillel they check the top two rows, whereas others hold that they check the top row and the one behind it.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
שתי שורות על פני [כל] המרתף – It is way of those who store wine to arrange the wine jugs row by row until they fill all the floor of the store-room/cellar and you go pack and place wine jug on top of wine jug, so that lower rows will be like the upper rows up until the ceiling beam. And the two rows that the School of Shammai mentioned is the outermost row from the ground until the top of the beam, and goes back and searches [for Hametz] the uppermost wine jugs over the length and width of the store-room/cellar, and as a result, the two rows are like the Greek GAM/gamma, one row is standing up and the other row is lying down.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
שתי שורות החיצונות – The highest row nearest the ceiling beam which looks out at the face of the opening which is lower than it. And those [jugs] which are inside [of this] do not require searching at all, and from the outermost [jugs] he does not search but only the two uppermost ones alone.
