Cleaning before Pesach is universal across every Jewish community, and it goes well beyond the kitchen: homes, shops, offices, shuls, schools — anywhere people spend the year.
Before the work, the reason. The custom comes from the need to destroy chametz in your possession and not to come to eat it — and it goes as far as it does because chametz on Pesach is forbidden b'mashehu, in the smallest quantity. Elsewhere in kashrus a tiny trace is nullified in sixty. Here it is not. A minute amount mixed into food, or absorbed in a vessel, makes that food or that vessel chametz.
That single rule is what turns a clean-up into the operation it is. See Pesach basics for how it fits the rest.
Where the holes and cracks actually are
The Shulchan Aruch has you check for chametz by candlelight, "in holes and cracks". A fair modern objection is that this described a different kind of building: walls then were plastered outside but left as exposed brick inside, full of gaps. Today's internal wall is smooth, and has none.
The answer given is that the cracks did not disappear — they moved. In a modern home they are:
- The rubber seal around the fridge door.
- Between the shelves in kitchen cupboards.
- Inside the oven.
- The join between the sink and the tiling.
The practical advice attached to it is to think about this early — from Purim — working out where your own house has narrow gaps, and clearing them in good time rather than on the last night. It reframes the whole exercise usefully: you are not scrubbing a clean house again, you are finding the four or five places crumbs genuinely go.
The whole house, because of "shall not be found"
Since the Torah's requirement is that chametz "shall not be seen and shall not be found" in your possession, cleaning the food vessels does not discharge it. The furniture is included:
- Cupboards — and behind them.
- Beds and under them; bedside cabinets; mattresses.
- Sofas, under them, and between the cushions.
- The upholstery of armchairs, benches and chairs.
And outside the flat itself: gardens, storerooms, balconies, stairwells, corridors, the lobby of a shared building, entrance halls — including the letterboxes and the electrical cupboard.
The items people forget
| Item | What to do |
|---|---|
| The vacuum cleaner | Empty and clean it after the cleaning is finished — it now holds everything you collected |
| Telephones | Especially a cordless handset used while eating, and any phone near the dining table |
| Phone books and notepads | If they live on the dining table: clean and put them away |
| Prams | Including the bag and under the mattress |
| Clothes | Pockets and turn-ups — children's pockets above all |
| Bookcases | Empty, check and clean; check the books themselves |
| Sideboards | Anywhere cake, sweets or food are occasionally kept |
| Wardrobes | Emptied and checked by custom, though food is not kept in them; line the shelves with fresh paper afterwards |
Two details worth knowing
Walls, windows, doors and frames are cleaned by custom — with one caution: do not let the water reach the mezuzos, which would invalidate them. It is a genuine annual casualty.
Tables. Clean every table in the house well. Where a table is sometimes eaten on without a cloth, it is good to be stringent and pour boiling water over it. Where the practice is never to use it without a cloth, or no hot chametz is eaten on it, that is not needed.
Carpets take a thorough vacuum; heavily soiled ones need strong cleaning agents so no crumbs survive.
The kitchen itself is a separate job — see kashering the kitchen for Pesach — as are bedikas chametz and the car and the workplace.
How far your own household needs to take any of this is a question for your rav.
Where this comes from
- Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 431:1 and 442
- Ruling of Rav Mordechai Eliyahu on holes and cracks in a modern home
- ספר כשרות בפסח, פרק ד — preparing the home and kitchen for Pesach