Bedikat Chametz, "the search for leaven", is the ritual search for any remaining leavened food carried out in Jewish homes on the night before Passover. The Torah commands that no chametz, leaven, be found in a Jew's possession during the seven days of Passover, in memory of the unleavened bread the Israelites baked in haste as they fled Egypt with no time for their dough to rise. In the days before the festival the home is thoroughly cleaned of all leaven, and on the evening before Passover a final, formal search is made by the light of a candle to seek out any crumbs that may remain.
The search is conducted with a set of traditional implements and blessings, a candle to light the corners, a feather to sweep out the crumbs, and a wooden spoon or vessel to gather them, and it is often given a playful dimension by the custom of deliberately hiding a few pieces of bread about the house so that the search is not made in vain. What is found is set aside and burned the next morning in the rite of biur chametz, the burning of the leaven, and the householder recites a declaration renouncing ownership of any leaven that may have been overlooked, so that none remains in their possession. The observance gives concrete, domestic form to the festival's demand that leaven, read by the tradition also as a symbol of pride and corruption, be wholly removed.