F or readers who have never been present at the mechiras chometz conducted by the rav on Erev Pesach allow me to take you behind the office door and let you in what really goes on back there.
A number of years ago our trusted nochri moved to North Carolina and we needed a replacement. After a quick talent search we found our man — a Mr. Campbell a nochri meyuchas. (When we asked him if his mother was Jewish you could hear his laugh all the way back to the South Side of Chicago his old stomping grounds.)
Halachah mandates that the rav must ascertain that the buyer fully understands what he is undertaking. (If you think it’s easy to explain you try it. “What am I buying? Comets? Like the ones NASA sends space probes to examine?”) After the rav coordinating the mechirah completed his explanation he asked Mr. Campbell to briefly explain his own role and his response was right on target. “Since G-d took you out of Egypt you can’t eat crackers for a week.”
Perfect. We had our guy.
Little did our buyer know that he was actually mechavein to a pasuk in parshas Bo that should offer us all food for thought. “And you should guard the matzos for on this very day (b’etzem hayom hazeh) I took your multitudes out of the land of Mitzrayim” (Shemos 1217). The pasuk is implying that there is a correlation between the fact we left “b’etzem hayom hazeh” and our mitzvah to eat shemurah matzah on Pesach.
