This cleansing ritual is extensive and involves cleaning the whole house until it is spiritually clean. Blowtorches are used. Every inch of the home is inspected. Nothing survives. It’s no joke. If you want malevolent forces gone, this is the Jewish way of doing it.
The four basic methods of purification for kitchen items:
• Burning (libun gamur)
• Boiling (hagalah)
• Pouring boiling water (iruy kli rishon)
• Light burning (libun kal).
These methods are not simple. For instance, to qualify as a complete libun, metal must be heated until glowing-that includes all metal utensils and every part of the interior of the oven. Some people even use a blowtorch to accomplish his task.
Once the kitchen and utensils are clean the house itself is searched for anything that might possibly be construed as an impurity: dirt, dust, anything the size of a breadcrumb is removed. These impurities are called, chametz. Breadcrumbs (or anything that could appear to be construed as a possible crumb of grain or leavened bread or particles of flour) are the consummate representatives of spiritual impurity—chametz.
Prior to the search, a candle is lit and the following spell is recited:
Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha’olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’’zivanu al be’ur chametz.
Praised are You, Adonai our G-d, Sovereign of the Universe, who has made us holy by mitzvot [commandments] and instructed us concerning the burning of the chametz.
By the light of a candle, the entire house is searched for anything that could be chametz. While using a feather as a broom, any dust suspected to contain possible spiritually toxic leaven is scooped into a wooden spoon and collected.
After the process is completed, one recites the following magical formula of annulment in Hebrew which means, “All chametz in my possession, that I have not seen or removed, shall be null and considered as the dust of the Earth.”
The following morning, the detritus is burned, and again the formula for the removal of hametz is recited, but with a slight variation:
“Any chametz that may still be in the house, that I have or have not seen, that I have or have not removed, shall be as if it does not exist, and as the dust of the Earth.”