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April 2, 2004/Nisan 11 5764, Vol. 56, No. 28
Mysteries of matzo
Torah study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Tzav/Leviticus 6:1 - 8:36
A wise teacher once said that our manner of greeting on the Passover holiday requires a fundamental change. People generally wish each other "Purim sameach" (a joyous Purim) and "Pesach Kasher," (a Kosher Passover). It ought to be the opposite. Since we are required to drink wine and other inebriating beverages on Purim - "until we can no longer distinguish between praising Mordechai and cursing Haman" - it would be more logical to bless our friends with a Kasher Purim; and since we are required to clean so thoroughly in our removal of chametz (leavening) in preparation for the festival, it would make more sense to bless our friends with a joyous Passover.
But why this frenetic cleaning?
Even though Rav Haim Soloveitchik of Brisk would attempt to relax his wife each year by telling her that dirt is not chametz according to the Talmud, she would respond wryly, "If I listened to you and your Talmud, we would all be eating chametz on Passover, God forbid!" After all, even the slightest amount of leavening left over by accident is enough to render an entire pot-full of food forbidden for Passover consumption - so it is logical to clean all the corners and empty all of the cupboards in every room where food may have entered.
Indeed, the very first mishnah of "Tractate Pesachim" begins, "on the eve of the 14th day of the Hebrew month Nissan (the evening before the night of the seder), it is necessary to search for the chametz by the light of a candle," - clearly giving the message that Passover must be preceded by heavy-duty cleaning.
But what religiously symbolic message is chametz trying to convey, what negative action is chametz attempting to teach us to deny, what internal characteristic is the Passover law attempting to uproot? The word matzot has precisely the same Hebrew letters as mitzvot, but what is there in chametz that makes it such a no-no?
I would suggest that in order to understand the symbolism, it is necessary to bear in mind the chemical process involved in the process of leavening. When any of the five grains - wheat, rye, oats, barley, spelt - are mixed with water, the grain will naturally rise and turn into the loaf of bread or roll that we so much enjoy. Matzo requires human intervention before the leavening takes place. An individual must continually "work" the grain-water mixture and not allow it to lie dormant for 18 minutes; and before 18 minutes has passed, the individual must place the mixture in the oven to be baked.
The necessity of producing matzo - and the prohibition against chametz - teaches us that we must not leave the development of our personalities up to the biological influences of our genes and our natural proclivities. Every individual can and must work on himself in order to change, to grow into the person he would like to become.
There is one more message to our cleaning. Matzo is the grain and water without the added volume and "puff," the excess baggage that comes from fermentation. All of us carry around "excess baggage," resentments, angry feelings that we must get rid of in order to establish proper relationships.
Our external cleaning ought to reflect an internal cleansing that will enable us to recognize the demons at our doorsteps but give us the strength to vanquish them. After all, Elijah, the herald of redemption, will first and foremost enable families to live with each other in peace when the hearts of the parents will be turned to the children and the heart of the children to the parents.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the spiritual leader of Efrat, Israel.
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