How Should an American Sell Chometz That He Owns in Eretz Yisroel?

Rav Ariel Ovadia

Question: Someone lives in America and owns an apartment in Yerushalaim, which has chometz in it. When he sells his chometz in chutz la’aretz, the mechirah will take place after Pesach already began in Eretz Yisroel. Is that a problem? 

Answer: As people started becoming more international, Poskim started discussing what happens if you are in one place and your chometz is somewhere else. The consensus of Poskim today is that what matters is where the owner actually is. If you’re in America, you have to be concerned with the time in America, and if you’re in Israel, you have to be concerned with the time there as far as when to sell chometz. 

However, the chometz retains the chumrah of its location, in the sense that if the chometz is in Eretz Yisroel and the owner is in America, it will be treated with chumrah of chometz.

But as far as the owner selling chometz, he must make sure to sell it according to the time of mechiras chometz in his location, regardless of where the chometz is located.