Conference taveng::bagels

Here's my guess, obviously not authoritative.

You're not allowed to have "hanaa" (pleasure, profit) from chametz during
Pesach.  I'd guess that your wife gets pleasure out of her volunteer work,
so it's probably problematic.  I think it would be even more of a problem
if there are Jewish clients.

FWIW, you're also not allowed to have "hanaa" from meat and milk cooked
together, so depending on what they serve the rest of the year, it could
be a problem then.

    
    I am surprised that this year Passover starts on Saturday.  I 
    thought the calendar was arranged so that there would not
    be a Yuntov (sp?) after Shabbos.  
    
    When is the preparation for the sedar supposed to occur?
    
    Thanks,
    Amy
    
    Oh, also, where can I find Passadic parave margarine around
    Mass.?

    Before Shabbath. 
    
    You still have chalot on Shabbath, but keep them well
    seperated from everything else. 
    
    Regarding Passadic parave margarine, if you have no luck 
    you could try extra virgin olive oil as a substitute.
    It's more healthy, and if I understood the recent posting 
    in the Halachic dist list correctly, it doesn't need a 
    hechsher. 
    
    As a sidenote, I'm wondering how far you can go in keeping 
    Pesach without buying supervised food and still be kosher
    le-Pesach? Obviously matzot needs to be supervized, but if
    you stick to pure foods such as coffee, tea, milk, sugar, 
    coco, vegetables, fish, potato flour, spices etc, there 
    does not appear to be much difficulty. 
    
    If you lived somewhere where supervised foods were not 
    available, this would appear to be your only option. 
    I guess you'd have to bake your own matzot to fulfil 
    the commandment to eat matzot! 
    
    Malcolm
    

    If you are going to try it without supervised foods you have to
    be very careful.  For example, you mention cocoa.  I don't know
    what they sweeten it with, but it may well be corn, which is in
    lots of foods.
    
    We'll make a trip into Brookline to get the stuff we need.
    
    				Paul
    

>    As a sidenote, I'm wondering how far you can go in keeping 
>    Pesach without buying supervised food and still be kosher
>    le-Pesach? Obviously matzot needs to be supervized, but if
>    you stick to pure foods such as coffee, tea, milk, sugar, 
>    coco, vegetables, fish, potato flour, spices etc, there 
>    does not appear to be much difficulty. 

In the U.S., there are lists of products that do not require special
supervision.  Among them are Hershey's baking cocoa (unsweetened),
granulated sugar (I think that's what you call castor sugar in England),
frozen pure orange juice and frozen pure grapefruit juice.  All the other
prepared foods you mentioned need supervision.  There are coffee blends
and coffee and tea decaffeination procedures that are problems.  The
vitamin D added to milk can be chametz or kitniyot, spices can be ground
with chametz, confectioner's sugar contains starch, brown sugar
can have some problem or other, etc.

you can get the margarine at the Butcherie in Brookline, and I also
believe at Kosher Beacon. 

In the past Mothers Margarine has had the OU Passover sign on it you
might find that at a supermarket as well.

re: .0

My brother has to attend some dinner during Pesach; this dinner has
a price of admission. His question was whether he could attend since part
of the payment included food. The answer he was given was that the chametz
only became his if he made a kinyan - that is took some action that made
it his. A kinyan can be picking something up, but generally speaking
a kinyan requires intention as well. You should check this
out further, but based on that .0 should not really have a problem.

    I talked with our Rabbi last night.  Forgive me for not putting this in
    first thing this morning.
    
    I can add more info later, but I gotta get home to do my oven and tie
    up the cabinets....our own family custom....
    
    Any way the bottom line is very simple.....All chometz is to be cleared
    out by 9:30 a.m. tomorrow 3/25.  Then you can eat Peseach foods from
    Peseach dishes etc. HOWEVER DO NOT REPEAT NOT OPEN THE MATZOH!!!!
    NO MATZOH MUST BE EATEN BEFORE THE SEDER!
    
    More explaination to follow tomorrow....That means clean out your oven,
    dishwasher (I usually just run a full cycle with nothing in it) and
    refrig tonight or before 9:30 tomorrow.....
    
    All cooking should be done by sundown tomorrow night....  Good luck!
    I'm glad ours is just two of us and a simple Seder it is for us.
    
    Passover hugs and kisses for all
    
    me