Hello chevra and welcome to our pre-Pesach Mishnayos learning series where we continue to learn Mishnayos related to the period of time between Purim and Pesach. So we are now up to our last day. We are up to Erev Pesach. We have covered Shushan Purim, we covered Chaf Tes ערב ראש חודש ניסן, we covered Rosh Chodesh Nissan, we covered Zayin Nissan and Yud Nissan and Yud Gimmel Nissan and now we are up to the Erev Pesach, Erev Pesach. So Erev Pesach is a day that has a lot going on and we will see that we will, I believe, cover somewhere between 10 and 14 Mishnayos in this particular series. We will not be covering every Mishna that relates to Erev Pesach because some Mishnayos really are just continuations of on the same topic that we will be talking about. So we will hit on many of the highlights of Erev Pesach, we will touch on probably every single topic, but we may not touch on every Mishna that relates to Erev Pesach time. What we'll try to do as well is try to go through the day as it progresses. So our first Mishna not unexpectedly is going to start on the evening of Erev Pesach, which is what we call Bedikas Chametz night. Bedikas Chametz is when we go around checking our homes and other areas for chametz to make sure that we do not have any chametz that we don't know about. Obviously nowadays we sell our chametz but still you need to know about it and we look for it and we try to get rid of whatever chametz we can. And so the Mishna is the opening Mishna in Masechtas Pesachim, Perek Aleph, Mishna Aleph and that is of course the start of Erev Pesach. The Mishna itself has two parts to it. The opening part is about the idea of going around to be bodek your chametz, to check for chametz. The second part of our Mishna is going to talk about a specific area and whether or not you need to check it and how much and we'll talk about that when we get to it. So the Mishna begins: Or L'arba'asar. Or L'arba'asar. That is a strange lashon. It should have said at the evening, Erev Arba'asar, meaning the evening of Arba'asar and of course the Gemara asks the question: Or L'arba'asar. That why does it say the light or the ending of the light of Arba'asar, which like I said means the evening leading into Erev Pesach? בודקין את החמץ לאור הנר. We check and we search for chametz בודקין את החמץ לאור הנר, using a candle. We don't use a torch, we don't use a multi-wick candle, we use a single candle because a, it allows us to get close and look and in this way you can search everywhere with the with the light in order to check for chametz. And the question is where do you have to check? So the Mishna says: כל מקום שאין מכניסין בו חמץ, any space, any area that you know with certainty that you did not bring chametz into, ein tzarich bdika, then there's no reason for you to check. Again because you're only checking in case there might be chametz. Therefore the Mishna asks its own question: It says v'lamah amru, therefore the Mishna says v'lamah and why do they say, why did the chachamim say shtei shuros b'martef? That you have to check two rows in a martef. So a martef is a storage house they used to have let's say in their cellar. They'd have a cellar where they store wine, a wine cellar and they would line up the barrels across the room in rows and stacks. They would stack barrels of wine one on top of the other and I guess there was an ancient known idea and a halacha that one is meant to check that area for chametz. So why? You don't bring chametz. So the Mishna answers: מקום שמכניסין בו חמץ. Because in fact, yes, sometimes you're in the middle of a meal and you realize you ran out of wine. So you send one of your kids, you send the person in charge of the wine, one of your servants, and to go get wine and he has some chametz in his hand. So because there may be chametz when someone goes to the wine cellar, we do need to check that area for chametz as well. So now that we mentioned this martef, this wine cellar, picture a wine cellar like this. It's a wine cellar, it's a small room, it has stacks of wine, you know let's say it's five deep and five up. So you have 25 barrels of wine, right, you have five across and five deep and then it has three layers on top so it's 75 barrels of wine, let's say it's a lot of wine. And the question is how much of that cellar do you need to check? So it's a machlokes בית שמאי בית הלל. How to understand them is also a machlokes in the Gemara but we'll understand the most basic way. The Mishna says like this: Beis Shammai omrim, Beis Shammai says שתי שורות על פני כל המרתף. What you do is you check like this. You check let's say you're facing the barrels, you're going to check all all five layers facing you, so those 25 barrels and also the entire top layer you're going to check. going to and as the Gemara says it looks like the letter gamma in Greek, it's a straight line and a down line. So you check that entire way. U'Beis Hillel omrim, Beis Hillel says you don't have to check the whole top, you don't have to do that, שתי שורות החיצונות שהן עליונות. He says according to Beis Hillel, what you do is you just check the top layer, the first two rows. And that's it because the idea is that if you're the meshareis, if you're the person going to get the wine, you're not digging around everywhere. You're looking in the top top ones to see which has the best wine in it and those are the ones you're going to take. But you're not going to dig all the way to the back of the top and all the way to the bottom. So Beis Shammai, Beis Hillel limits where you need to search for chametz as opposed to moving all the barrels, just those two top ones unlike Beis Shammai again who says the entire face that's facing you, the area that's facing you and the entire top level, Beis Hillel limits it. And with that, I wish you continuing hatzlacha in your learning.