Chametz

Chametz, also Chometz, Ḥametz, Ḥameṣ, Ḥameç and other spellings transliterated from Hebrew: חָמֵץ / חמץ‎ (IPA: [χaˈmets]), are leavened foods that are forbidden on the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to Jewish law, Jews may not own, eat or benefit from chametz during Passover. This law appears several times in the Torah; the punishment for eating chametz on Passover is the divine punishment of kareth ("spiritual excision"), one of the severest levels of punishment in Judaism. For non-Jews, this punishment would be understood as the equivalent of eternal damnation.

Chametz is a product that is both made from one of five types of grain and has been combined with water and left to stand raw for longer than eighteen minutes and becomes leaven.

The word chametz is derived from the common Semitic root Ḥ-M-Ṣ, relating to bread, leavening, and baking. It is cognate to the Aramaic חמע, "to ferment, leaven" and the Arabic حمض ḥameḍ, "to be sour", "to become acidic".

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