Q. Should one who owns a fire place or has a discarded oven burn leftover bread, cookies and cakes during the thirty days before Pesach to comply with the Biblical mitzva of Biur Chametz or the burning of the chometz? Since even just diluting them in water and then disposing of them in the sink is easy and possible, should one not comply the whole month every day and many times a day with such an important Biblical mitzva?

A. Talmud (Pesachim 6a) quotes Rabbi Yehuda in the name of Rav : “One who sets sail or journeys with a caravan thirty days before Peisach, he is not obligated to burn his chometz; If it is within thirty days, he is obligated to burn it.” That also corresponds to the learning and expounding on the laws of Pesach thirty days before the festival.

Remah (O.H. 636: 1) rules that a brocho should then not be recited, however Biur Halocho and Mishna Berura (ibid.) quote some opinions that a blessing should also be recited then.

The reason why we do not follow a due process to comply with this important mitzva during the whole month prior to Pesach, as mentioned by Horav Aharon Miller Shlit’a is that our sages did not want to impose a constant everyday and every moment mitzva that would create and result in a great loss of food, time and effort.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller Horav, Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a