Reply To: Grocery that gets rid of all Chometz before Pesach

Reb Simcha,

The way I look at it is that people know that the Mechira is not that good and it would definitely not hurt to be machmir. Maybe it’s possible to be meikel but their ego doesn’t let them be “meikel” so they need to find an excuse to call it a “chumra” so they dig up something called “buying from yidden” that wasn’t relevant to them when the price, quality, or convenience was slightly better somewhere else. Not only do they pat themselves on the back with their new invented chumra to davka buy questionably sold chometz they also refuse to accommodate those that are machmir and start to bash them zealously.

Not that every person who believes this idea has this reason, but somewhere down the road someone invented this lomdos for this reason and some people find it convenient to buy into this lomdos, some people are confused, and some people truly believe that the sale is fine and for some reason continue to use the excuse of buying from Yidden which they don’t need because they hold it’s ok even if it would be specifically from Goyim. (of course, many people who are meikel to buy the chometz do not use this excuse and do not bash the machmirim. They don’t mind considering themselves the meikel or simply one of the sides)

In reality, it has no connection because the chumra has nothing to do with buying. It’s only that you cannot eat the food. I buy some food from Yidden and then don’t eat it when I realize that the product has an issue and I do not return it. I also don’t eat gifts that I receive that have this issue. It only can indirectly cause you to need to buy from Goyim because the Yidden were not supplying what you eat. That’s like saying that I shouldn’t go on a diet because it may cause me to buy less nosh from Yidden.

The original post was about trying to buy from Yidden. I have an option to buy from Goyim but I would rather buy from a Yid. So I am looking for a store that supplies what I need. If I can find a store that at least makes it clear what was sold and what was not, I would want to support such a store.