Every year on Pesach I get a flood of questions:
“What if a crumb of chametz falls into my coffee at Starbucks?”
“What if there’s chametz in my salad or gluten-free soup?”
And people are terrified — because on Pesach, chametz isn’t batel (nullified) even in 1,000.
But let’s clarify something important about how Halacha actually works:
Yes, it’s true that if you know chametz fell into your food on Pesach, even the tiniest amount, you can’t eat it — that’s a real halachic rule, even though it’s rabbinic (not from the Torah).
But if you don’t know, and you’re just worried about what might have happened — that’s the most a safek (doubt). And when there’s a safek derabanan, we go lenient — not as a loophole, but as the actual law.
This is how Halacha is designed to work.
In fact, some great rabbis wrote strongly about this. The Pitchei Teshuva (If I remember correctly) says that people who “don’t rely on bitul” — on the Torah’s built-in system of halachic nullification — are undermining the whole system. The Rama also writes a Teshuva saying that when halacha rules something is nullified, it’s not “optional” to accept it — it’s the law. See the Rama’s Teshuva here.
So, if you’re standing next to someone who drops some cookie crumbs into your coffee on Pesach? Don’t drink it.
But if you’re just getting a salad at a place that happens to serve bread? Or coffee at Starbucks, and you’re being reasonably cautious? You don’t need to panic.
Gluten-free food is even safer, because dropping actual chametz into a labeled gluten-free soup would risk lawsuits. Businesses take that seriously.
So yes — be smart, be careful. But stop driving yourself crazy. The purpose of halacha is to uplift you — not trap you in obsessive anxiety.
Let’s keep Pesach with clarity and calm.