Do My Keilim Have to be Sold to a Non-Jew?

Rav Ariel Ovadia

Question: I noticed that in the shtar mechiras chometz, it says something about my keilim, my food utensils, being part of the sale. What are we concerned about in regard to the keilim? Are we worried about bliyos, the chometz taste that’s absorbed into them?

Answer:  There is no problem with baal yiraeh or baal yimatzeh for bliyos because they are not tangible. 

The reason keilim are mentioned is that the Gemara in Bava Basra says that if one wants to sell something with a kinyan chatzer – which is one of the kinyanim used in the sale of chometz – the keilim that are holding the item being sold must also belong to the buyer. Even if the property belongs to the buyer, if the utensils storing the goods belong to the seller it would be an issue. 

Selling the keilim to the non-Jew, however, creates a problem because this would mean that they all would require tevillah in a mikvah after Pesach. The Poskim, therefore, suggest that the best way to do it is to give permission to the Rov to rent or lend the keilim to the non-Jew. This way, the kinyan chatzer would work and the keilim would not need tevillah after Pesach.