Q&A from the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

Penalty Box

April 17, 2026

Q I discovered this week that my ten-year-old son’s desk drawer held a box of shalach manos cookies over Pesach. May they be eaten now?

A If a Jew owned chametz on Pesach in violation of bal yeira’eh—chametz she’avar alav haPesach—Chazal imposed a penalty and forbade deriving benefit from it after Pesach (Psachim 28a; O.C. 448:3).

To generally prevent violation of bal yeira’eh, Chazal instituted bitul chametz—the declaration of Kol Chamira, to relinquish ownership of the chametz and nullify it (Psachim 6b). But they decreed that one may not rely on bitul alone; he must eliminate the chametz. And the knas of chametz she’avar alav haPesach applies even if bitul was done (O.C. 448:5).

Had the drawer contained the family’s food, it would be permitted, assuming you follow the practice—nearly universal today—of selling your chametz to a non-Jew through a rav before Pesach. That’s because any chametz accidentally left in the home is included in the sale and not violative of bal yeira’eh (O.C. 448:3). But the food being a child’s complicates matters. Perhaps we can say that members of your household that are bar or bas mitzvah implicitly intend to have you be their shliach to appoint the rav to sell their chametz, too. But with regard to children, ein shlichus lekatan (minors lack the power of agency; Bava Metzia 10b).

The power of zchiyah (acquisition via a third party) enables A to acquire an ownerless item on behalf of B without B’s knowledge, for example, and it does apply to a katan (C.M. 243:18). But zchiyah might not allow you to sell on your son’s behalf (see Ketzos Hachoshen 243:8).

Did Chazal even impose the knas of chametz she’avar alav haPesach on a child’s chametz? The Mishnah Brurah (434:16) cites the Pri Megadim, who is in doubt but inclines toward leniency. The Har Tzvi (O.C. 2:45) points to elsewhere in the Pri Megadim where he says clearly that the penalty applies. The difference, the Har Tzvi posits, is whether the child has reached the age of chinuch. So your ten-year-old would be subject to the knas.

But did your son even own the cookies? A katan cannot acquire something without da’as acheress maknah (an adult granting it to him; C.M. 243:15). It may be that when a parent gives his child shalach manos to give to a friend, he is intending to gift it himself to whomever his child will choose as the recipient. But the more likely classification is aveidah mida’as (see Bava Basra 87b): the father handing it to his child is making it ownerless, and the child that his child gives it to is acquiring it from hefker, like finding a lost object under circumstances that allow it to be kept. When a child supported by his father finds such a metziah, it belongs to the father (C.M. 270:2). This would mean that the cookies were included in your mechiras chametz.

The above reasons to permit, coupled with the fact that the issur of chametz she’avar alav haPesach is deRabanan, may be relied upon to permit the cookies.