Question:
My wife gathered all the frozen pieces of challah that needed to be burned and gave it over to someone who burns challah. Right before bedikas chometz, she found another piece. and she asked me to burn it with the chometz. She made 2 paper bags in one the challah and the other my 10 pieces from the bedika and tied them with a string so I dont forget one of them. I went the next day to a communal sereifa in Lakewood (they have strict rules about burning in the backyards here) and i threw the bags in. The bag with the 10 pieces made it into the dumpster, the other fell out and was hanging. I tried to get over the barricade but there was a Fireman there and he wasnt even willing to use his stick to push it into the fire. I said the kol chamira but was very upset that the challah was not burned. (I overheard the fireman tell someone that all the leftovers get sent to the city dump to be burned but I have no way of knowing that the challah was burned.) My question is there some tikkun that could be made. I feel very upset about this but I think this was definetely an Ones, but if there is still something that I could do to fix this I would like to know. Thank you
Answer:
Thank you for your question.
It does sound like you did your best to burn the challah. You don’t have to get that concerned though, because if it gets dumped in the city incinerator that is fine. Even if it is only buried, since it is in a separate bag, it is considered burying it respectfully, and there are opinions among the poskim that this is a viable option. Therefore you do not have need to be concerned.
Best wishes
Sources:
משפטי ארץ פ”ה סע’ כ’ בשם חזו”א מעשרות ז’ ס” י”ג, ורדב”ז ח”ב ס’ תשל”א.
