‘I’m Jewish – this is why we have to sell all our bread before Passover’

As Passover is about to begin, one Jewish man took upon himself to explain why Jews sell their bread during the eight day long festival.

The evening of Saturday, April 12 marks the beginning of the eight day long festival of Passover, where Jews across the globe celebrate the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

One Jewish man named Nicky Kelvin is one of the millions of people across the world that will be celebrating Passover, and has taken to TikTok to share what happens and why all Jewish people have to sell their bread during the eight days.

“Weird Jewish stuff that’ll send the other eight billion people on earth into a coma,” he said at the start of the video. “This one blows my mind, but I actually think is so cool.”

“There are a lot of rules around food with Passover, also known as pesach,” Nicky said. “This festival pretty much celebrates our freedom from slavery in Egypt, and we all gather together for a meal [on the first evening of Passover] where we recount the tale of our slavery and freedom.

“Because we had to leave Egypt so quickly, we didn’t have time to let our bread rise, and so we don’t eat anything in these eight days that has leavened. No bread, no pasta, it goes on and on.”

He went on to explain: “But stuff you’re not allowed to eat is called chametz, and bread is the one that’s like the evil one. And Jews cannot even possess chametz, which is where this, which looks something from a Scorsese film comes in.”

Showing a photo taken from the rabbi in his childhood synagogue in Leeds, a group of Jewish men is seen sitting around a table along with one non-Jewish man.

Instead of throwing away their bread, a Jewish person can sell it to a non-Jewish person ahead of Passover.

“This is [the rabbi] selling all of the leavened goods of Leeds Jewish community to this man here. He’s not Jewish, so he’s allowed to own it for that period,” Nicky said. “He’s called Henry, and he owns all of the bread of the Leeds Jewish community for the next eight days.”

While it might sound odd, similar transactions happens all across the globe to make sure no Jew is in possession of chametz during Passover. Sometimes, the transaction even happens at a larger scale.

“This is even more wild, this is Jabbar Hussein, he buys all of Israel’s Jews bread for the whole of these eight days, every crumb of bread, it’s his,” Nicky said, showing a photo of Jabbar on the screen.

“Chag sameach! Happy Passover,” he said at the end of the video.