Tag: Chametz

We are now one month away from Passover. It is a hectic time for most people as the month prior to Passover is spent planning, cleaning and preparing for the holiday. In addition to the physical components of preparing for Passover, there is a practice that begins the laws of Passover in the Shulchan Aruch, which states:

שואלים בהלכות פסח קודם לפסח שלשים יום:

1. We learn the halakhot of Pesach for 30 days before Pesach.

Shulchan Aruch, 429:1

In light of this command, this is the first of many planned posts during this next month based on my personal reading and studying of the Passover Haggadah in preparation for the holiday. My hope is to share from a couple of different commentaries I am reading this year ideas that are not just of importance as we consider the holiday of Passover, but that are fundamental to our growth as spiritual human beings.

To begin, one of the more overused and yet highly important ideas about Passover is the reinterpretation of the laws regarding removing leavened products, Chametz, from our midst, that suggests not only the removal of Chametz in the food sense, but also the removal of our spiritual Chametz, the removal of our arrogance, our ego. We derive this latter idea from a prayer attributed to a Rabbi Alexandri, in which he connects the evil inclination to the yeast in the dough:

וְרַבִּי אָלֶכְּסַנְדְרִי בָּתַר דִּמְצַלֵּי אָמַר הָכִי: ״רִבּוֹן הָעוֹלָמִים, גָּלוּי וְיָדוּעַ לְפָנֶיךָ שֶׁרְצוֹנֵנוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנֶךָ, וּמִי מְעַכֵּב? — שְׂאוֹר שֶׁבָּעִיסָּה וְשִׁעְבּוּד מַלְכֻיוֹת. יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ שֶׁתַּצִּילֵנוּ מִיָּדָם, וְנָשׁוּב לַעֲשׂוֹת חוּקֵּי רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם״.

that after Rabbi Alexandri prayed, he would say the following:
Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before You
that our will is to perform Your will, and what prevents us?
On the one hand, the yeast in the dough, the evil inclination that is within every person;
and the subjugation to the kingdoms on the other.
May it be Your will
that You will deliver us from their hands, of both the evil inclination and the foreign kingdoms,
so that we may return to perform the edicts of Your will with a perfect heart.

Berachot 17a (translation includes commentary by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz)

In reflecting on this spiritual notion of removing Chametz, the egocentric barriers that exists in our lives that negatively impact our growth, I want to share an additional element based on a few select passages from Artscroll’s Rav Shach Haggadah (for more on who Rav Shach is see here).

…But is it really possible for us to search our own hearts and cleanse them of sin? As the prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) writes, “The heart is the most deceptive of all things, and it is undependable; who can know it?” (17:9). There is only One Who can truly know what is in man’s heart: “I, Hashem, search men’s hearts and examine their inner thoughts” (17:10).

…We must conclude, said Rav Shach, that although wise men, prophets and angels are incapable of ascertaining what lies in other men’s hearts, each man himself is indeed able to – and expected to – peer into the recesses of his own heart and detect and rectify the imperfections that he finds there.

The reason for this, he explained, is that although it is “I, Hashem, search men’s hearts and examine their inner thoughts” (Jeremiah 17:10), man possesses within him a Divine soul that emanates from God Himself. “The soul of a man is the candle of Hashem, searching all his inner recesses” (Mishlei 20:27). It is with this “candle” that we can indeed search for the “chametz” of our souls and attempt to eradicate it.

…In order to cause dough to be leavened, all one has to do is leave it alone and do absolutely nothing. Similarly, if a person lets down his guard even for a moment, if he ceases to strive for spiritual growth and enhancement, he opens himself up to the disastrous effects of the yetzer hara, who avails himself of the opportunity to sow the seeds of spiritual ruin.

p. 8-10

One of our challenges is sifting through our egos to the point of being able to make real strides spiritually. We make excuses and offer justifications for why we continue to act a certain way, even when we wish to strive towards growth and change. And more often then not, when we don’t see ourselves changing for the better, we stop. Or, when we think we have reached a new place, we stop. Yet, we can never stop striving to find ways to remove our excuses and barriers. Stagnation is not neutral, but it is actually a negative.

I have written about the importance and value of celebrating each step in our growth. Celebrating our victories along the way is of the utmost importance as a way to encourage our continuous striving. It is not about resting on our laurels. Rather, we take another step and then we search again so as to take the next step, and keep going through this process.

As we begin this thirty day stretch leading to Passover, the holiday celebrating our redemption from Egypt, may we not just clean our homes but also work to “clean” ourselves of those things that stand in the way of reaching the spiritual goals and heights we wish to attain.

If you or someone you know is looking to forge ahead and set new goals for the journey of life, we are here to help foster spiritual and emotional growth and change. Schedule your appointment today here. For more information, please contact New Beginnings Spiritual Coaching and Consulting LLC at 732-314-6758 ext. 100 or via email at newbeginningsspiritualcoach@gmail.com