|
|
|
March 19, 2004/Adar 26 5764, Vol. 56, No. 26
Our need to cleanEditorialDoes anyone really want to clean the kitchen? Yet, every year, with the turn of spring, we are instructed to remove all our chametz in preparation for Passover.Chametz is any food product that contains leavening - from pasta to cookies, from flour to crackers. Jewish tradition calls us to get rid of every last crumb from our kitchen and throughout our house. Why do we need to be so exacting? Perhaps it is because the ritual of removing chametz involves much more than eradicating leavening from our homes. The cleansing process offers a time to reflect and to improve ourselves. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, our tradition teaches, are not the only introspective times of the year. Removing chametz offers a window to our souls. Tradition teaches that chametz is the symbol of our egos: Just as bread products swell up from leavening, chametz represents our inflated selves. When we search for chametz, we remember how we have been self-absorbed and self-consumed. When was the last time we said "thank you" and really meant it? When did we last stop ourselves before we criticized or complained? When was the last time we helped a neighbor, caught up with a friend or volunteered at a nonprofit organization? During the past year, every time we acted selfishly, every time we gave into the urge to focus on ourselves, we created a crack in our soul that quickly filled with chametz. In the days before Passover, we are to reflect, root out our selfishness and eradicate the chametz that has built up, layer upon layer. Removing the chametz from our kitchens is no easy task. Removing it from ourselves is even harder. Achieving ritual purity is easier than achieving ethical purity. Our challenge every day is not just to know the right thing, but to do the right thing. Searching for chametz can ease the task to becoming more ethically pure. As we clean our homes, in preparation for Passover, the festival of our freedom, we purify ourselves to symbolically reenact receiving our covenant. Thousands of years ago, God did not free the Israelites just for the sake of freedom. Rather, God freed them to serve another power, not Pharaoh, but the ultimate power. When we literally clean our homes and introspectively remove the chametz from our souls, we use our freedom not to serve our selfish selves, but to serve God. In doing so, we remember our responsibility to reach out to family, friends and neighbors, as well as strangers. |
