| The Torah states : "Chometz should not be seen ,neither should chometz be
found to you within your borders". These are two separate mitzvos, and they
imply, in conjunction with the severe punishment of excision for eating
chometz on Passover, the gravity with which this trangression is viewed.
However, the operative words in the verse are "within your borders", which
our sages have interprepted as implying ownership. In other words, you do not
have to cover your eyes if you see a loaf of Wonder bread in the street, owned
by others.
The common practice of "mechiras chometz", the selling of the chometz to a non-
Jew arose from this Talmudic interpretation. As long as chometz is not owned by
you (and you set aside a place for it), you do not transgress the above prohib-
ition. (Obviously, the restriction against eating is not dependent on ownership.)
Technically, you are allowed to have a gentile in your house eating his own food
for this same reason, although this is not encouraged.
Jeremy
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