By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO — Although we are free from the physical bondage our ancestors suffered in Egypt, this does not mean that we are no longer enslaved.
I realized this during a recent trip I took out of the country. Judy and I were vacationing in a city where our cell phones worked, but the charges would be astronomical if we used them. We left them in the hotel.
It did not take me long to realize how enslaved to my cell phone I had become. Not only could I not make and receive calls, I no longer had access to email, the news, and all of the other apps with which I constantly play. I felt strangely naked. It was not easy to break my habit of constantly checking my phone.
During Pesach, chametz* is asur b’ma-she-hu. That is, we are forbidden to have even a minuscule amount of chametz in our homes. In order to make sure we have completely emptied our dwelling of chametz, not only do we scour the kitchen and living spaces from top to bottom, but we go on a “search and destroy” mission (bedikat chametz) on the night before the seder.
While the Torah forbids us to have chametz in our possession during Pesach (“…on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.” [Ex. 12:15]) it does not tell us the reason. Our sages stepped into the breach.
Our rabbis taught that chametz symbolizes sinfulness and arrogance. Just as a grain of wheat spoils, expands, and puffs up when it becomes chametz, so too does the sinful person become spoiled and puffed up when they find some way to justify their actions.
Our rabbis further taught that just as one should rid one’s house of chametz before Pesach, so should one rid one’s life of hatred, envy, the evil inclination, and enslaving habits before the holiday begins.
As we enter the festival of Passover next Friday night, let us not only clean our homes of physical chametz, but our lives of spiritual chametz as well. Let us examine those habits and convictions which enslave us, and let go of those things which frustrate us and weigh down our lives. Let us bring to realization our Passover declaration:”This year we are still enslaved, next year may we be free!”
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Chametz is often translated as “leaven” but it technically means any of five specific types of grain–wheat, rye, oats, barley, and spelt–that have become fermented.
*
Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifreth Israel Synagogue in San Diego. He may be contacted at leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com