On Shabuot, we received the Tora. It all began with the Ten Commandments.
“I, HaShem, am your God, the one who rescued you from the land of Egypt, from the society of slaves.”

“I”
No human being is speaking here. Not a close relative of God or a man who embodies God as Pharaoh or Yeshu defined themselves. Nor is it a prophet who receives a message from an angel or a person appointed by God to speak in His name. This commandment begins with the Hebrew word ANOKHI, which means “I. God introduces Himself to the People of Israel in the first person singular before giving His code of law and ethics.

In Jewish tradition, this introduction is considered a Divine commandment, or Mitsvá. Actually, the First Commandment.
This commandment is the foundation of ethical monotheism, which means that God, the Creator, is also—or as a consequence of that—the one who defines what is ethical, moral, and what is wrong—in Jewish terms, what is permitted and what is forbidden. Ethical monotheism strongly rejects the idea that ethics emanate from human criteria or opinion but come directly from God, transcending the subjectivity and arbitrariness of time, trends, and geographies.

I AM YOUR GOD: Forget about the Pharaoh!
This “I-you” also establishes a direct, personal, almost “horizontal” connection that develops the main idea of this commandment. To better understand it, we must remember to whom God speaks when He dictates His commandment. He is addressing the men and women who, although they descend from illustrious patriarchs, have suffered for the past four generations slavery and oppression. Many have forgotten their God and their history and have been mentally programmed to replace the Creator with a Pharaoh. It is similar to what happened to those Jews in Russia who, during Stalin’s time, were mentally programmed to replace God with Stalin. In the ancient societies of 3500 years ago, there was a minimal, indistinguishable distance between the gods and human leaders. Every Pharaoh proclaimed himself the “supreme leader and greatest benefactor of humanity.” Egypt was something like present-day North Korea, where Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un prohibits all religions because he is obsessed with being the “only deity that people can worship—and obey—in that country” (see this alarming article). The first commandment urges the children of Israel to free themselves from that ideological tyranny and abandon the worship of the Pharaoh.

…who rescued you from the land of Egypt, [and liberated you] from the house of slaves…

The second part of this commandment briefly and exquisitely describes the fundamental differences between God and the Pharaoh, which was understandable to those who had just left Egypt. In this commandment, God does not present Himself as the universal Creator but as the One who intervened in our lives and liberated us from slavery. The message is powerful: unlike the Pharaoh, an egocentric deity who demanded unconditional obedience and loyalty “for his own benefit,” God requires nothing from us for “HIS” own benefit. In fact, and here lies the great revolution—God wants what is best for us! The proof? The Pharaoh enslaved you in Egypt while God liberated you from slavery! The Egyptian God sought to exploit your strength for his Pharaonic projects, while HaShem, your God, seeks your benefit. He cares about you.

FREEDOM
And that is why, immediately after mentioning freedom, God gives us His laws, rules, prohibitions, and precepts. Why? Because true freedom is not about doing whatever one wants but exercising moral self-control and proper behavior in our interactions with others. This ethical conduct will lead to true and lasting happiness and the satisfaction of knowing that we are doing what is right. This first commandment makes it clear that God explains to us in the following commandments how to live a righteous life because He cares about us, loves the people of Israel, and wants our well-being. It offers us a deep appreciation of ethical monotheism and shapes our understanding of true freedom.

Rabbi Yosef Bittón

THE REWARD

In this Parasha, the Tora promises us His blessing of prosperity and peace if we diligently observe the Tora, our pact with God. The Creator promises us rains in their time and that He will protect us from our relentless enemies. The Tora gives us some details of this blessing, guaranteeing peace on the land, eliminating wild animals, and God’s intervention to grant us military success. The epitome of Divine Intervention in this area is manifested when the Tora mentions: “Five of you will pursue (defeat) a hundred (enemies), and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand!” The Tora also promises an abundance of crops and the permanent presence of God among us.

THE PUNISHMENT

But then comes the other side of the coin. What will happen if the people of Israel turn away from God and abandon His pact? If we turn away from God, He will not intervene in our favor, and by our own making, we will be left to the mercy of nature and our enemies. The process, more or less, goes like this. The interruption of the Divine blessing –rain in its time– will bring starvation, and hunger will cause weakness and illnesses to the inhabitants of Israel. Wild animals, which also suffer from hunger when there is no rain, will stalk us in our own cities. Being weak, we won’t have the strength and means to face relentless enemies.  Those Gentiles that are always lurking will identify our weakness (=God is NOT with us), invade our land and take possession of it. And we will be expelled into exile. The non-observance of the sabbatical year – when we forget that the Land of Israel is Divine territory – is pointed out as one of the main reasons why we will lose the merit to continue living in our land. In exile, we will be considered unwelcome foreigners, and we will be completely exposed to their whims, their cruelty, and their hatred. They won’t leave us in peace. They will humiliate and persecute us with the sword. Our lives will become filled with panic and anxiety. However, when we return to God, He will remember the merit of our ancestors and won’t allow the enemy to exterminate us.

MORE MITZVOT

After this long warning about the consequences of abandoning the commandments, the Tora moves on to a completely different and unrelated topic: the voluntary donations to the BetHaMiqdash and how to evaluate them and quantify them. These donations can be land, animals, and other possessions. The Tora also mentions the role of the firstborn animals and indicates how to replace or redeem them. In the end, the tithes of the harvest are briefly mentioned, which must be consumed in Jerusalem, as well as the rules of the tithe of animals.

One of the most painful mistakes people make when trying to comfort someone in distress is to offer an explanation for that person’s suffering.

A man is diagnosed with a serious illness. A couple struggles for years to have children. Parents lose a child. Someone experiences financial ruin or a devastating personal tragedy. And then, often with sincere intentions, a friend, a relative, or even a rabbi says:

“Perhaps this happened because you were not careful enough in this area of Jewish law.”

“Maybe HaShem is punishing you for this or that.”

“You should know that your sin caused this tragedy.”

Such words may sound “religious.” They may even be presented as “spiritual guidance.” But according to Halakha, saying these things to a suffering person is not an act of faith. It is a violation of the Torah prohibition of ona’at debarim—causing emotional pain with words.

The Torah commands:

וְלֹ֤א תוֹנוּ֙ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־עֲמִית֔וֹ

“You shall not wrong one another.” (Vayikra 25:17)

Our Chakhamim explain that this verse prohibits hurting another person through speech.

The Talmud’s Example

In Talmud Babli (Baba Metsia 58b), the Gemara presents one of the clearest illustrations of this prohibition:

“If sufferings are coming upon a person, if illness has befallen him, or if he is burying his children, one may not say to him what Iyov’s friends said to him: ‘Remember now—what innocent person ever perished?'”

Iyov (Job) was suffering immense misfortunes. His children died in an accident. He lost all of his possessions. And finally, he lost his health. Three friends of Iyov came to comfort him. In the beginning, they did the correct thing: they sat next to him, without saying a single word, for an entire period of seven days.

This is one of the main sources of the Shib’a, the seven days of mourning. But it is also the source of a very important halakha, or protocol: when visiting a mourner, the visitor may not say any word, except for “min hashamayim tenuchamu”—”may you be consoled from Heaven.” Other than this, the visitor must remain in silence until the mourner opens the conversation first. Our presence—not any kind of explanation, but our silent presence—is what a mourner truly needs.

When Comfort Turned Into Accusation

After the seven days passed, the friends of Iyov engaged him in a very long argumentation where, one after the other and in very different ways, they tried to convince him that HaShem would never punish someone for nothing. He must have sinned! Iyov, rightfully so, defended his innocence.

At the end of the story, in the very last passage of the book, the three friends of Iyov are ordered to bring a chatat—a sacrifice of atonement brought by someone who committed a transgression involuntarily.

The Sages of the Gemara bring this example with an unmistakable message: when a person is enduring pain, we are forbidden to suggest that his suffering is the result of his sins.

This ruling is codified by the Mishne Torah, the Shulchan Arukh, and the Sefer haChinukh—always citing the very same case of Iyov.

What About Personal Self-Reflection?

Many people—even knowledgeable and religious people—get confused on this point, because the Sages, in a different context but also speaking about human suffering, explain that when someone is going through hardship he or she should reflect on his actions: yefashfesh bema’asav, “let him examine his deeds.”

Indeed, Judaism teaches that when a person experiences hardship, he should engage in honest introspection. He should ask himself:

“What can I improve?”

“How can I grow from this?”

“What am I doing wrong at this moment?”

This is a deeply private conversation between a person and his Creator. It is not a way of trying to discover why HaShem brought this difficulty upon him. Rather, it is the way a Jew is taught to “respond to suffering.” In a sense, this exercise is palliative: it is not about finding the intention of HaShem—something which Moshe Rabbenu himself was not able to fathom and which we are never taught that we can find—but a positive response that helps the person focus on growth and rise back from despair and depression.

Now, here is where people make a terrible mistake. There is a world of difference between what a person asks of himself—”What can I do better?”—and what another person may suggest to him—”This is why you deserved this suffering!”

This kind of unsolicited admonition brings terrible emotional pain to someone already in anguish. It causes more emotional suffering, and more depression, because now the person feels guilty on top of his sorrow. Whoever speaks this way actually transgresses an explicit prohibition of the Torah.

What may be spiritually meaningful when spoken inwardly becomes a Torah violation when spoken outwardly as an accusation.

Our True Obligation

When another Jew is suffering, our duty is to alleviate pain, not to intensify it.

We are called to offer:

Compassion and words of comfort.

Our silent presence when they are mourning.

Our heartfelt tefillot (prayers).

Our unconditional support.

HaShem does not need us to explain His decisions. What He asks of us is to care for His suffering children.

Telling a suffering person that his illness, tragedy, or loss occurred because of his sins is an explicit violation of the Torah prohibition of ona’at debarim—causing emotional pain through words.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton

Kidnappings and taking captives are not a new story. It was a common practice in ancient times, so much so that the Tora legislation prohibited human trafficking no other than in the Ten Commandments. Yes! As you heard it. The eighth commandment, “Thou shalt not steal,” doesn’t mean to steal someone’s property but not to “steal people” or “not to kidnap,” which, by the way, the Tora condemns with the death penalty.

THE MITZVA OF RESCUING PRISONERS AND ITS EXCEPTIONS

The Talmud also emphasizes that a Jewish community must make all possible efforts to rescue a captive person. According to Jewish law (Maimonides, Hilchot Matanot Aniyim, 8), it is a fundamental precept to ransom captives—usually prisoners of war or refugees—(Pidyon Shevuyim), and it is considered the highest form of Tzedaka. The Gemara explains that if a Jewish community is collecting money for a synagogue, for example, and then they learn that there is a Jew kidnapped, the community must use those resources to free the captive. Furthermore, even if the money has already been invested in buying construction materials, these should be returned or resold to use that money to ransom the captive. The history of the efforts that Jews have made to rescue captives is exciting and very long. But I’ll leave those details for the future, and now I’ll refer to a caveat that the law of Pidyon Shevuyim records.

“One should not pay too much for the ransom of a captive.” One should not pay more than the “market price,” this is very difficult to understand in our time because we live in privileged historical times. Still, in the past, human trafficking, unfortunately, was typical. There were slave markets where prices for people were standardized. And why does the law discourage paying an excessive price for a Jewish captive? Because if a community is willing to pay that price, it would be encouraging traffickers to continue kidnapping Jews!

THE KIDNAPPED ONES FROM OCTOBER 7TH

Now that we understand this, let’s look at the dilemma experienced by the State of Israel at this time. The tragedy of October 7, 2023, left a horrible toll of close to 1300 Israelis massacred and about 250 kidnapped. In November, the Israeli government was able to release more than 100 hostages by interrupting the war against Hamas for ten days and releasing low-risk Palestinian prisoners. At this moment, there are about 135 hostages left. However, this number is that of people missing since October 7 who have not been able to verify whether they were kidnapped alive or dead. Negotiations with Hamas never included a list of survivors. Neither the Red Cross nor the United Nations has demanded that Hamas provide this information. Inexplicably, Israel has not demanded this information as a condition for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Returning to the negotiations, Hamas’s two conditions for releasing the Jewish hostages are: 1. Israel releases hundreds of Palestinian terrorists, many of whom have Israeli blood in their hands. 2. The complete cessation of the war and the permanent withdrawal of Israel from Gaza.

Let’s analyze these two conditions one by one and see if the price demanded of Israel is within what is reasonable or excessive in terms of its consequences.

YOU DON’T NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS

The best illustration to understand the potential consequences of negotiating with terrorists is to remember what happened with Gilad Shalit, a young Israeli soldier Hamas kidnaped and held in captivity for five years between June 2006 and October 2011. Israel released more than 1000 terrorists to get Gilad Shalit back. But once free, 50% of these terrorists have returned to terrorism and have participated in murderous terror attacks that killed scores of Israelis. The most notorious of these terrorists released by Gilad Shalit is Yahia Sinwar, the actual head of Hamas and the number one responsible for the massacre of October 7.  

In other words, more than 1300 Jews so far have been directly or indirectly killed by the terrorists that Israel released in that terrible negotiation deal.

On October 17, 2011, prophetically, Purdue University professor Louis Rene Beres argued against Shalit’s release. In an opinion column in the Jerusalem Post, he wrote the following:

“No modern government has the legal right to release terrorists in exchange for its kidnapped citizens, military or civilian. According to current international law, each state has the primary obligation to protect its citizens. However, it seems that tomorrow, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will exchange Palestinian terrorists for the kidnapped soldier of the IDF, Gilad Shalit. Any exchange, no matter how humane it may be for Shalit and his family, would endanger thousands of other Israelis.”

Can Israel reiterate the mistakes of the past? 

Hamas has repeatedly said that as soon as it can, it will repeat the massacre of October 7. How many more Israelis will die if Israel releases Hamas’s dangerous terrorists?

STOP THE ATTACK ON RAFIAH (RAFAH)

The other condition that Hamas puts forward is that Israel end the war and withdraw from Gaza. This, of course, would mean a complete defeat for Israel, the meaningless death of the over 200 Israeli soldiers already killed in this conflict—without counting the thousands wounded—and would endanger Israel in front of its voracious enemies, as in the Middle East, weakness attracts terrorist attacks. Incredibly, the world is siding with Hamas and not with Israel at a very delicate moment: when Israel is about to enter the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Why is Rafah so important?

For those who do not know the geography of Gaza, it may be challenging to understand what Rafah means in this conflict. I will try to explain it as briefly as possible. Firstly, a quarter of Hamas terrorists are still alive in Rafiaj, including many who actively participated in the massacre of October 7. But beyond that, Rafiaj has fundamental geopolitical importance.

The Gaza Strip borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the north and east, and Egypt to the south. The border with Egypt is supposedly closed, but in reality, there are dozens—or hundreds—of tunnels that connect Gaza and Egypt. Through these tunnels, weapons, financial resources, and terrorists have been smuggled to and from Gaza. If Israel, theoretically, does not conquer Rafah, it could not declare victory over Hamas. If it leaves this border open, Hamas will continue to dominate Gaza, obtaining resources, money, weapons, fighters, etc., in short, it would allow Hamas to survive and eventually continue attacking Israel.

In the past, Israel attacked Gaza to defend itself against Hamas attacks and bring security to Israeli citizens. Still, it never went all the way, and the consequences were devastating. But this time, after the greatest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, I believe it has to be different. This time, Israel’s forces will enter Gaza and have already destroyed hundreds of war tunnels and are one step away from ending the terrorist organization and establishing itself militarily in Gaza to prevent future attacks.

AMERICA, GONE WITH THE WIND

To understand the strategic importance that conquering Rafahj represents for Israel, all one has to do is pay attention to the devastating and unprecedented international pressure that Israel is suffering at this moment from all the countries in the world, and unfortunately, with the U.S. at the forefront. All the antisemitic demonstrations in U.S. universities, even if they disguise themselves as other causes, aim to pressure the U.S. to pressure Israel not to ATTACK RAFIAH. At the time I am writing this article, Antony Blinken is in Israel trying to convince Netanyahu to make more concessions to reach an agreement with Hamas. Indeed, the U.S. will offer guarantees that if it gives in to Hamas’s demands, the U.S. will defend Israel. I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the Prime Minister of Israel, and I pray that he does not give in. Why? Because those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Let me explain. Israel made three severe mistakes in the last 30 years: firstly, the Oslo Accords, which only brought more intifadas and death. Second, and as I just explained, releasing terrorists with blood on their hands to return Shalit. But I believe the worst mistake, the one that has cost us the most blood, was when Ariel Sharon withdrew the Israeli army from Gaza. According to Israeli journalist Amit Segal, one of the things that convinced Sharon was that President Bush told Sharon something like: “Don’t worry, if anything goes wrong, the U.S. will have your back. We will not allow the Palestinians to attack Israel.” What good were those promises from Israel’s main ally? Absolutely nothing. Israel cannot repeat the mistake, especially with an administration that has proven to be so lenient in dealing with Hamas terrorists. 

THE TORAH AND THE RESCUE OF JEWISH PRISONERS

This Tuesday morning, the last day of Pesach, I spoke in my synagogue about rescuing prisoners in the Tora, particularly in the book of Genesis, Bereshit.

When Lot was kidnapped from Sodom, Abraham gathered an army of more than 300 people, pursued and defeated those who had captured Lot, and freed him and all the prisoners of Sodom. There were no negotiations, only a military operation (Genesis 14:14-16).

When Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was raped and then kidnapped, the sons of Jacob, Shimon, and Levi pretended negotiations to surprise the inhabitants of Shechem. Surprisingly, they attacked the city, killed all the men who resisted, forcibly rescued Dinah, and burned the city (Genesis 34). There were no negotiations with the kidnappers; they had no mercy on the terrorists or the citizens of Sodom, nor did they consider the disproportionality of their violent response. And indeed, this disproportionate reaction created a psychological terror that seized the neighboring peoples and deterred them from attempting aggression against the children of Israel.

ONE SHOULD NEVER NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS, AND THE MILITARY RESPONSE MUST BE DELIBERATELY DISPROPORTIONATE SO THAT THE ENEMY UNDERSTANDS THAT IT IS NOT IN THEIR INTEREST TO MESS WITH ISRAEL.

April 14th was a day of a historic victory for the state of Israel. To me, it was like the first day of the Six-Day War. That day,  Monday, June 5th, 1967, Israel attacked the Egyptian air forces and destroyed all their planes before they could take off. Within a few hours, Israel had won the war and demonstrated its offensive power to its enemies.

Yesterday, for the first time in history, Iran attacked Israel. Iran threatened Israel many times before but had never carried out those threats. Iran has its proxies: Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, or the Houthis from Yemen. An Israeli commentator of Iranian origin once explained Iran’s tactic in its relentless (and inexplicable) struggle against Israel: What is the most critical piece of a chess game? The king. And the king is the one who moves the least. Iran is the king. Iran always attacked Israel through its disposable pawns. But Israel forced the king to move. And you don’t need to know much about chess to understand that when the king moves, the king is in trouble… It was a masterful check by Israel that forced Iran to act on its own.

And Iran failed.

While there were no fatalities, Iran attacked with everything it had.’ It fired 60 tons of explosives in hundreds of drones, 36 cruise missiles, and more than 120 ballistic missiles. Israel intercepted 99% of everything Iran sent. This same attack power, which Russia uses, for example, in Ukraine—with drones provided by Iran—has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. A similar attack, although much less intense because it consisted of only 30 drones, occurred on September 14, 2019. That day, Iran attacked Saudi Arabia and destroyed 50% of its oil wells in the Aramco region. The results of that attack? ‘The biggest daily disruption of oil supply in history.’

See here (https://www.csis.org/analysis/attack-saudi-oil-infrastructure-we-may-have-dodged-bullet-least-now

The Israeli Air Force destroyed all the drones in the air, and most were intercepted outside Israeli territory by Israeli and American planes.

Israel also intercepted Iran’s most powerful weapon: the ballistic missiles. Unlike the drones, which take from 6 to 8 hours to reach Israel, these advanced missiles sent through the stratosphere can get from Iran to Israel in 10 minutes! General Abibi said today on the HAPATRIOTIM  ((https://youtu.be/_fA5aoz-Asc?si=ATklE2qI3KlMeQCN, see from minute 10:30 to 11:30) that these missiles were shot down directly by Israel ‘because no other country in the world can do so.’

Israel used its CHETZ system and demonstrated to its enemies—and the entire world—its military superiority. It was an impressive, overwhelming victory and a display of Israel’s power to her enemies and to her allies.

Today a friend told me a little bit concerned ‘that Israel paid a very high price for the Iranian attack’, since activating all these defense systems costs Israel billions of dollars. I’m not an economics expert, but my common sense tells me that Israel yesterday “invested billions in activating its defense systems and is now in a privileged position to make 100 times the profit from that. Why?  Because no country can afford not to have this fantastic defense system. All countries in the world, especially in Europe, will run to equip themselves with the Israeli defense systems that demonstrated its phenomenal effectiveness in a real war! 

It has been an incredible day for Israel on all fronts!

One last thought: allies apart, despite the amazing defense systems that Israel has, as we know, things can always go wrong in war… There are unpredictable elements, such as accidents, human errors, or countless failed missiles. On April 14th our main ally, BORE OLAM, showed us again that He is on our side.  In the past, I wrote that we should ‘update’ our visualization of the ‘anane kabod, ‘the clouds of glory’ that protected the people of Israel when we left Egypt. We must not understand—as they do in kindergarten—that those were like the ‘white clouds’ in the sky. We should visualize these ‘clouds’ (except for the seventh, which acted like a GPS) like virtual clouds or firewalls,  an invisible dome of Divine protection, which we remember every year through the festival of Sukkot and, in fact, every night when we bless HaShem for protecting us with His Sukat Rachamim Veshalom, “the invisible protection dome of compassion and peace”  with which HaShem surrounds us.

The survival of Am Israel depends on the intelligence, courage, and determination of the Jewish people and the invisible but omnipresent assistance of Bore Olam.

May God protect us from our enemies as He protected us when we left Egypt and grant Medinat Israel victory on all fronts. AMEN!

During Pesah we do not use the same utensils or the same dishes we use throughout the year for Hametz. Although the utensils in which we cook might be completely clean of Hametz, without any visible remaining food, the surface’s pores of these utensils absorb the flavor of the foods cooked in them. For example: if I cook meat and then in the same pot (even after I clean it) I boil eggs, the eggs would absorb some of the taste of the meat. Likewise, when we cook something in utensils used for cooking Hametz, some Hametz flavor will be reabsorbed in the food we prepare for or during Pesah.

It is customary and recommended, therefore, to have a set of dishes, plates and utensils to be used exclusively for Pesah.

When this is not possible, and especially this year under our extraordinary circumstances, we might use for Pesah the same utensils we utilize throughout the year for Hametz, after they go through a process known as hag’ala, (a kind of sterilization) to remove non visible residual Hametz that may be absorbed within the walls and pores of these utensils.

Before making the Hag’ala we need to make sure that those utensils are thoroughly cleaned of any visible of Hametz (חמץ בעין). The Hag’ala then ejects the Hametz absorbed  (בלוע) in the walls of the utensil. Eliminating these adsorbed particles takes place under the same conditions the absorption of these substances occurred (כבולעו כך פולטו). The pores of a metallic surface open up when exposed to heat, and that is when absorption occurs. Consequently,  the expulsion of these particles would also occur by exposing these utensils to heat.

Now, when a utensil is used throughout the year to serve or prepare cold Hametz food, it can be used during Pesah after cleaning it thoroughly from any visible rests of Hametz. These utensils don’t need to undergo the Hag’ala process since absorption of Hamatez only takes place at high temperatures. Examples of these types of utensils are: plastic cups and containers, and trays that are used mainly ( רוב שימושו) to serve cold food. 

Examples of hag’ala:

Metal: Metal cutlery such as forks, spoons or knives, must be first cleaned of all visible residue of Hametz. Then, they must be immersed in a pot of boiling water. Then we wash them with cold water, and they may be used for Pesah. Hot water opens the metal pores, allowing the ejection of any absorbed Hamets. The cold water closes the pores again.

Glass: According to the Sephardic tradition, glassware, cups, plates, etc, used throughout the year for Hamets, should be washed thoroughly and can be used for Pesah without having to undergo the Hag’ala process. Glass is sterile, and it does not absorb any food substance through its pores, and therefore there is no Hametz to remove from its walls. This applies even for those glass utensils that are used at high temperatures for cooking or serving hot Hametz food.

Notice that this Halakha is very different in the Ashkenazi tradition. Some Ashkenazi rabbis like the Rama say that since glass is made from sand, glass utensils should be regarded as clay utensils, which are not susceptible to Hag’ala, and therefore cannot be used on Pesah because Hag’ala is useless for them. Other Ashkenazi Rabbis allow an Hag’ala process for glassware.  Consult your community Rabbi. 

Clay utensils, pottery and porcelain (Kele Heres): If these items were used for Hametz, they cannot be used for Pesah, because they are not susceptible to Hag’ala. The Rabbis explained that unlike metal or other utensils, clay utensils eliminate the substances absorbed in their walls in an erratic and inconsistent way. That is, sometimes they would expel an absorbed flavor and sometimes they will not. Because we cannot rely on the Hag’ala process to sterilize these types of utensils completely, they cannot be used for Pesah. Most contemporary rabbis believe that regular porcelain utensils should be considered of the same category as clay utensils. However, there are many other considerations to take into account which can allow for exceptions to this. Some factors which might indicate a more lenient opinion in time of need are: whether these utensils were used for cooking or for serving food; the temperature of the food served; whether the china was not used for a long time; whether it is common porcelain or glass coated, etc.   

If you have further questions about this and other types of utensils that are mentioned in this brief section,  please consult your community rabbi. 

Sink and countertops: The sink, metal or porcelain, should be cleaned of any food residue and then pouring on it boiling water. Countertops and tables, if possible, should be cleaned and then by pouring on them boiling water. If pouring hot water  is not possible because of the material they are made of (a wood table or countertop, for example) they should be cleaned and covered for Pesah. If you are using a regular table, clean it carefully and then place on it a Pesah or a new tablecloth. 

Dishwasher:  Before Pesah begins, after the dishwasher is completely clean and empty, it should run on an empty cycle with detergent.  After this, it will be suitable for Pesah. 

Oven:  The oven should not be used for 24 hours and then cleaned thoroughly afterwards. If it is a self-cleaning oven, it should go through one self-clean cycle, and then it becomes Kosher for Pesah. If the oven does not have a self-cleaning feature,  after it is thoroughly cleaned it should run on its highest temperature setting for half hour (including the oven racks). Following this the oven is Kosher for Pesach.

Microwave: Fill a microwave-safe bowl with water and some detergent. Insert it in the microwave and turn it on until the microwave walls are filled with its steam. The vapor penetrates the walls rendering the microwave Kosher for Pesach. 

HOW TO KOSHER THE KITCHEN (Ashkenazi Tradition)