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OK, which are you honestly more scared of?
Chometz on Pesach, or radiation from a nuclear bomb?
Which would you worry about more?
Uhh… Both are scary. Truthfully, I ate something on Pesach and only after looked at the hechsher- to see that I couldnt find ‘kosher l’Pesach’ anywhere! I was so worried, I can assure you I felt like I was about to faint. Luckily I turned over the package and saw that on the other side it said kosher l’Pesach. ATM, where is there radiation from a nuclear bomb?
“Chometz is only deadly when eaten b’mayzid. Radiation will kill you regardless.”
Radiation does not kill regardless.
In any event, spiritual destruction is worse than physical destruction.
Wolf: but if exposed to radiation, one does not die immediately, while chometz immediately destroys a person’s neshama (kares)
A. Enough radiation can kill in a very short time.
B. As I said above, chametz will only kill you if you eat it on purpose. If you eat it accidentally, you will NOT get kares. Radiation, on the other hand, won’t care what your intention was.
C. You can do teshuva regarding kares. Radiation won’t care if you teshuva for being exposed.
The Wolf
Radiation does not kill regardless.
I invite you to tell that to Harry Daghilan and Louis Slotin, among others.
The Wolf
Wolfish: You are ignoring the dosage.
Those were exceptional cases.
And the detonation of a nuclear bomb (which is the case you made in the OP) is not an exceptional case?????
The Wolf
I was thinking about radiation in the same amount as Chometz
Granted. I would be just as scared of 50 megatons of chometz as I would be of 50 megatons of radioactive material.
The Wolf
A very small dosage of radiation is not only not fatal, it is not even considered unhealthy.
Fine, I’ll come out and say what you’re waiting for me to say anyway:
Yes, if a nuclear bomb went off in New York City, I’d be running in the other direction as fast as I could. And if I found chometz in my house, I wouldn’t be running anywhere.
Is that what you wanted to hear? Yes, I’d be more scared of the radiation… and if you think that’s shows a lack of sensitivity to what’s important in Yiddishkeit, then so be it… but I’d be willing to bet dollars to (pesachdik) donuts that 99.99% of people would react the exact same way.
The Wolf
“but I’d be willing to bet dollars to (pesachdik) donuts that 99.99% of people would react the exact same way.”
And does that make it right?
It does no good to freak out if you find chometz, if you believed your declaration of it as dust of the earth before Pesach. Once we found some in a plastic bag (#10, which we knew was lurking somewhere), and our rav told us to carefully flush it, and throw the plastic bag out outside. Not our chometz…
OTOH, I’m 50.1 miles from a nuclear power plant, and if something goes wrong, I’m grabbing the kids out of school and meeting my husband somewhere in the midwest.
And does that make it right?
Fine so tell me… if *you* saw chometz on Chol HaMoed, would *you* get into your car and put as many miles as possible between you and it as quickly as possible?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
The Wolf
Fine so tell me… if *you* saw chometz on Chol HaMoed, would *you* get into your car and put as many miles as possible between you and it as quickly as possible?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
The Wolf
Wolf, although I agree with your overall approach here (as I understand it, that if we’re honest with ourselves we’ll realize that we are more afraid of physical than spiritual danger), I’ll take slight issue with your analogy. There is no benefit to running away from chametz although there is benefit to distancing oneself from radiation.
One can do Teshuva for Chometz
There is no teshuva for Radiation
I’m probably debasing myself by even commenting on this semi-ridiculous scenario, but . . .
Find a piece of chometz on pesach: Cover with a napkin, pick it up, flush it down the toilet, clean more carefully next year.
I’m not sure what running out of your house would accomplish; you would still have chometz in your reshus (though not yours, obviously, since you hopefully were mevatel it prior to yom tov).
Now radiation, I don’t think flushing it is the best option. Considering HOW it is damaging, a safe distance is probably your best bet.
C’mon people, making yourselves crazy about errors in cleaning judgement that you cannot correct until next year is not what simchas yom tov is all about. If anything, the best tribute to your commitment to Torah would be to deal with the unwanted stray noodle the way the halacha instruct you to, and not go crazy because in your own mind you have just committed every yeharog v’al vaavor in the book and then some. Allowing your personal feelings about the terribleness of the chometz to override the Torah’s instruction about how to deal with it is not much better than chomping down on a bagel because you REALLY wanted it.
“Radiation does not kill regardless.”
This is a false statement. Many died as a result of radiation from both the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and from the Chernobyl disaster.
Charlie: Small dosages of radiation does not necessarily kill. That was the only point of the quoted statement.
If you find a stray nuetron waiting to make a nucleous unstable, cover it with a Keli until Chol Hamoed, when you will burn it, releasing it to the atmosphere. On the other hand, if you hear of Chometz having excaped through some chimney, put on you haz-mat suit and find shelter, and don’t go outside until the Rabbonim announce, on Kol Mevaser that it is safe to venture outside, for ten minutes a day.
I would definitely be more scared of chametz on pesach. How can anyone NOT be afraid of chametz on pesach. Hashem will save me from radition, but not from teh aveira of having chametz on pesach. Anyone who sez differntly is showing his true values.
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