When Passover falls on a Sunday, this creates a somewhat complicated situation, as one must have already finished most of the preparations for the festival before Shabbat (i.e., two days before the holiday). In addition, one must also observe Shabbat properly, which entails eating meals that include bread. Such timing requires slightly different preparation, as detailed below.

The search for hametz that is conducted by candlelight the night before Passover cannot be carried out on Friday night, so it is brought forward to Thursday night (the night between the twelfth and thirteenth of Nisan). Other than that, it is performed in the usual manner.

On Friday morning (the thirteenth of Nisan), the hametz should be burned as usual, but at this stage, the declaration of nullification of hametz (“All hametz or leavened items, etc.”) is not yet recited. Some bread should be left over for eating at the Shabbat meals. It is recommended to leave only a minimum amount such that it can be entirely consumed. It is a good idea to use bread that does not crumble easily, such as pita bread.

On Friday before Shabbat, one lights a long-burning candle that will remain lit for more than twenty-four hours. From this candle, one can transfer a flame, after the conclusion of Shabbat, to light the festival candles and also, if one wishes, the fire of the stove for cooking and heating food for the festival.

For the Shabbat meals it is advisable to eat only foods that are kosher for Passover, except for the bread, of course. It is also recommended to use disposable utensils. If one is eating only kosher-for-Passover foods, he may use Passover dishes and utensils, but he must be careful that they do not come into contact with the bread on which he recites the HaMotzi blessing at the beginning of the meal. The bread should be eaten outside the house if possible, on a disposable tablecloth or the like, in order to ensure that no crumbs remain in the house. After one has eaten the requisite quantity of bread (see the laws of Shabbat, p. 391), one should remove all remaining bread, brush off one’s clothes from any possible crumbs of hametz, and then go back to the dining table to continue the meal.

For the morning Shabbat meal, one must remember to finish eating the bread before the final time for eating hametz. Then one throws the remaining bread into a public garbage receptacle or flushes it down the toilet. This action replaces the traditional burning of hametz, which, of course, is forbidden on Shabbat. At this point, one recites the declaration of the nullification of hametz (“All hametz or leaven, etc.”) which is said every year at the burning of hametz.

One should fulfill the mitzva to eat a third Shabbat meal [seuda shelishit] with kosher-for-Passover foods, but one may not eat bread or matza at that meal.

When the Seder falls on Saturday night, one should not set the Seder table or make other preparations for the Seder on Shabbat. The reason is that the sanctity of Shabbat is greater than that of the festival, and therefore any activity that involves preparing for the festival on Shabbat is prohibited.

The festival candles should be lit only after Shabbat has already ended. One may not light a new fire, but rather transfer fire from a flame that was already lit on Friday. Before lighting the candles or performing any other actions for the festival that are not permitted on Shabbat, one should recite the formula: “Blessed be He who distinguishes between the holy and the holy,” i.e., between the sanctity of Shabbat and the lesser sanctity of the festival.

Further discussion: For more on Passover and the exodus, see A Concise Guide to the Torah, pp. 135, 161, 315, 471; A Concise Guide to the Sages, pp. 84, 306; A Concise Guide to Mahshava, p. 93.