When Passover starts on a Saturday night, “Erev Pesach” is stretched over three days, as weird as that sounds.

  • The fast/feast of the firstborn, which would normally be on the morning before the first seder, is pushed two days earlier, so that we do not have to fast on Shabbat or Friday. So, the traditional Siyyum for the firstborn will be held on Thursday morning, March 25. Services begin 8am, followed by the siyyum (all virtual, so have your own food ready). Please note: the synagogue calendar is incorrect when it puts the siyyum on Friday.
  • Then, Thursday night is when we search for Hametz by candlelight, starting 7:43pm at the earliest.
  • Kitchens should be completely switched over to kosher for Passover and we get rid of almost all our hametz by burning or selling it by the sixth hour of the day on Friday = 12 noon. But do not recite the Kol Chamira declaration/prayer if you’re going to eat challah on Shabbat (that comes tomorrow – see below). If you instead are going to eat egg matzah on shabbat, say Kol Chamira now.
  • On Shabbat, we have to have some kind of bread, and it can’t be matzah. So we have two options:
    1. Eat hametz, but very carefully (no crumbs!). The hametz sale document, and the way that we dispose of hametz, has a loophole for any hametz that we are planning to eat on the rest of Friday evening or Shabbat morning. We can therefore hold back enough challah for Shabbat dinner and Shabbat lunch (this is a great time for paper plates or outdoor dining). We finish eating the hametz by the fifth hour=10:58am and dispose of any leftovers by the sixth=12:01pm. Leftovers can be rendered inedible and discarded. At that time, we recite the “Kol Chamira” declaration/prayer (normally recited when burning the hametz) that cancels any remaining hametz.
    2. “Egg Matzah” is not technically considered Matzah, as it is similar to bread, but is also not hametz. So, it’s possible to use two sheets of it in the place of challah, and thus be totally kosher-for-Passover going into shabbat.