QUESTION

Someone will be home on the night of the 14th, but will then travel the next morning to the place where he will be staying for Pesach.

For his own home — since he will be there at the time of bedikat chametz — should he perform a full bedikat chametz with a berakhah?

And what about the next day, when he arrives at his Pesach location — does he make a berakhah on the bedikah there? Does it make a difference whether he arrives before or after the time of biur chametz?

ANSWER

If he will be returning to his home during Pesach, then he makes a berakhah on the bedikah there on the night of the 14th. In that case, I would say that he should also have in mind the place where he will be staying for Pesach, and not make a berakhah when he checks there upon arrival. Even though his sleeping is clearly an interruption, since he performed the mitzvah and made the berakhah on the night of the 14th in his home — where he was living then and to which he will be returning, which is the ikkar mitzvah — there is a good argument that he is not required to also make a berakhah in the place where he is going, even though he is required to check.

He does, however, have an obligation to check the place where he will be spending Pesach, even though it was under the control of somebody else on the night of the 14th, because if that person did not fulfill their obligation, or was not Jewish, then the obligation falls on him (see SA OH 437:3).

If he will not be home for all of Pesach and is selling all of the chametz in the house, then it is a real question whether he has an obligation to check at all (see MB 436:32). If that is the case, then I would say to check on the night of the 14th without a berakhah, and on the day of the 14th to check in the place where he is going with a berakhah.

In this context, see Shulkhan Arukh (SA OH 435:1; MB 435:5), which states that if one did not perform bedikah at night, it is done during the day with a berakhah. Here, although the person did perform bedikah at night, perhaps we can view the checking during the day as a continuation of that bedikah, even though it was, of course, interrupted by his going to sleep.