פירוש על פסחים 3:9

The night of the 14th of Nissan

Mishna - "On the night of the 14th, we search for hametz". Rashi explains the reason is so that one does not transgress the Torah prohibitions of seeing and finding hametz. This leads to a difficulty to the position of Rav Yitzchak the Elder - Since he requires "Bitul" (Annulment) as it mentions in the Talmud (Pesachim 6B) - "One who searches for hametz needs to annul." From the Torah, annulment is acceptable to avoid the Biblical transgression. Why did the Hachamim require searching at all? It seems to the opinion of Rav Yitzchak the Elder that even though annulment is sufficient, the Rabbis were stringent to require the searching of hametz and to destroy it so that no person should come to eat hametz on Passover. Another reason - The Torah was stringent on the finding or seeing hametz in your possession, therefore, the Hachamim were stringent on requiring the individual to search and destroy even if he annuled his possession of hametz because one may come to eat hametz.

[The Mishna Pesachim begins] "On the night of the 14th, they check for chametz by the light of a candle. Every place that chametz could not be brought does not need to be checked. And why did they speak of two rows of a wine cellar as a place in which chametz could be brought? Beit Shamai says, "two rows across the whole area of the cellar." Beit Hillel says, "the two outer rows, which are the uppermost." Here the topic of checking for chametz teaches that a person needs to refine and clean himself from all dirt and waste and remove any relation of these things from himself, therefore the Mishna says that a place which one enters requires checking, but a place which one does not entire does not require it. Thus if a person knows on his own that he clean from some particular thing, he does not need to check for that thing, as it said that a person has to know himself. This is the point that the Mishna asks about when it asks why they spoke of the "two rows in a wine cellar," because the wine cellar teaches us about a Talmid Chacham and for what he needs to