[Avodah] If the rabbi did not actually sell the Chamets

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Meir Rabi wrote:

> ... In our case though there can be no Safek that the master
> of the Chamets has indeed truly divested the Chamets and truly
> believes that there is no Chamets which does not satisfy the
> requirements of Chazal. In other words Chazal do not require a
> state of Chamets, they require a state of mind, which in this
> case has been accomplished.

Unfortunately, the Shulchan Aruch and the Responsa are littered with cases of people who thought that they had sold their chametz properly, only to find that the chametz was not sold, and thereby became forbidden. One such example is in the Mishneh Berurah 448:18 --

"If a Jew placed his chometz in the room of a friend who was selling his chometz [to a non-Jew], he must tell this to his Jewish friend who is doing the selling, and make him a shaliach for the sale. For if he just leaves it there, without telling, [it will become] forbidden after Pesach, because the Jew did not know to transfer it, and the non-Jew did not know to acquire it."

This case sounds (to me) very much like the cases RMR has given. This Jew intended for the chametz to be sold, and he even removed it from his home and placed it in the room where his friend had the chametz that he was selling. He did this with every intention of not being the owner of the chametz for the duration of Pesach. But because he missed some details, it did *not* get sold, and so he *was* the owner over Pesach, and the chamets *did* become forbidden.

Akiva Miller

____________________________________________________________
Penny Stock Jumping 3000%
Sign up to the #1 voted penny stock newsletter for free today!
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3131/4dc0bfb482d6d222c7dst06vuc