Selling Chametz: It's Origins and Evolution

(19) No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the community of Israel, whether they are a stranger or a citizen of the land. (20) You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.

(7) Throughout the seven days [only] unleavened bread shall be eaten; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen in all your territory.

(1) לא ימצא בבתיכם NO LEAVEN SHALL BE FOUND IN YOUR HOUSES — From where may we derive that this applies also to the external properties which belong to you? From what Scripture states, (Exodus 13:7) “[Neither shall leaven be seen with thee] in all your boundaries”. If this is so, why then does Scripture need specify here “in your houses” (since this term is comprised in the more general term “in all thy boundaries”)? It is for the purpose of defining the latter term through the former. How is it the case of your house? Everything contained in it is under thy control! So, too, the term “[leaven in all] your boundaries” means only the leaven that is in your boundaries and under your control, thereby excluding leaven belonging to a non-Israelite that is deposited with an Israelite but for which they have accepted no responsibility (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:19:2).

(4) Rabbi Meir says: one may eat [chametz] the whole of the five [hours] and must burn [it] at the beginning of the sixth.

Rabbi Judah says: one may eat the whole of the four [hours], suspend it the whole of the fifth, and must burn it at the beginning of the sixth.

(1) Any hour in which one is permitted to eat [chametz], one may feed it to cattle, beasts and birds, and one may sell it to a gentile, and benefit from it is permitted. When its time has passed benefit from it is forbidden, and he may not [even] fire an oven or a stove with it. Rabbi Judah says: there is no removal of chametz except by burning; But the sages say: he may also crumble it and throw it to the wind or cast it into the sea.

(2) Chametz which belongs to a gentile over which Pesach has passed is permitted for benefit; But that of an Israelite is forbidden for benefit, as it is said, “No leavened bread shall be found with you.”

A gentile who enters an Israelite's house, and there is chametz in their hand - one does not need to destroy [that chametz]. [Chametz that has been] deposited in that house, one is obligated to destroy it....An Israelite and a gentile arrive on a boat, and there is chametz in the Israelite's hand, and then that person sells it to the gentile, or gives it to that them as a gift, and [later] returns and buys it from that one after Pesach, and so long as that person gives it to the other as a outright gift.

Tubs for kneading dough - one does not reply on washing them in hot water or removing the chametz from them, because it is impossible to remove enough so that less than an olive amount remains, since the vessel make it all combine together, and one needs to give it as a gift to a gentile until after Pesach, or to cover it in plaster, because of the dough in the vessel and the pieces of wood that cannot have the chametz removed.

...for from the start of the fifth hour and within it is permitted to benefit and permissible to sell it to gentiles even many at once, because we certainly do not eat it before Passover...

Chametz that belongs to an Israelite that lasts through Pesach, it is forbidden to derive benefit [from it], even if was placed by accident or by force. But if they sold it to a gentile outside the household before Pesach, even though the Israelite sold it to the gentile knowing that they would not touch it at all, but guarded it for them until after Pesach, and gave it back to them, permitted, but only if the Israelite gave it to him as a outright gift without any conditions or if they sold it to them as an outright sale, but [if it was] a gift on the condition that it would be returned, it does not count.