Rav Dovid Feinstein Buys Challah After Pesach
Rav Dovid Feinstein, strict about chametz sold over Pesach, buys a bakery's challos the day after Yom Tov: she was closed nine days and needs parnassah.
HaRav Dovid Feinstein, shlita, observes this practice. One year, a student of his was walking him home on Friday morning. Pesach that year had ended the day before, on Thursday. The local bakery was fully stocked with challos. Rav Dovid walked into the bakery and purchased challos. His student was very surprised. He said to his rebbe, “Pesach just ended yesterday. How could the bakery have so many freshly baked challos? It is clear that this bakery had ready formed challos and froze them over Pesach. These were then sold to a gentile. While this is halachically fine, I thought that Rebbe has a chumrah not to purchase chametz from a store that relies on the mechirah?”
Rav Dovid answered, “This woman closed her store for nine days and I shouldn’t give her parnassah?!” Rav Dovid explained that in a small community where a local store is dependent on the small number of residents, it is not proper to be machmir on someone else’s dime. In a large community, one can choose to be personally machmir without affecting anyone else.