Rabbi's Sermons

Shabat Shalom!

Chag Pesach Sameach! This Shabbat we do not read a weekly portion of the Torah, but special readings for Passover are read. In that spirit, I will take the opportunity to talk about this holiday. I am sure you enjoyed eating matzo in your Leil Haseder meal and will surely have a couple of them ready for the blessing of the bread tonight. Many people normally have the idea that bread is not eaten this week, however, this statement is not correct. Matza is also a type of bread. In fact, it is a dough that has NOT fermented, and is eaten like this for the fact that there was no time for the dough to ferment during the departure from Egypt, just at the moment when the order was given by Moses. According to the sages, it is considered that a fermentation process begins 18 minutes later from the moment the flour is mixed with water. So, this is the MAXIMUM time that the flour can be in contact with the water before entering the hot oven for the Matzá preparation, some mention even after. Hence, could we deduce that the children of Israel left their homes in less than 18 minutes? According to tradition, it was so, and that is the simple explanation PESHAT (literal), but what is its background? What is the spiritual motive behind this story?

When our ancestors left Egypt - "they did not hesitate, neither began programming, or asking questions" If they had started to think about it, they would have asked themselves many questions: How are they leaving their houses to go to the desert even if they are slaves? What are they going to drink? What are they going to eat? Will it be enough? Who is going to protect them if they don't have an army? Who is going to decide the path? What are they going to do if something happens to Moses? Or to Aharon?

If they had doubted, they would have wasted precious time. They realized that there was no time to ask questions, but simply to EXIT! Not to think so much JUST DO IT! (like a well known brand of shoes).

Similarly, there are many moments in our lives, that we may ask too many questions, search, inquire, evaluate, judge, calculate, plan, time is lost! There are decisive moments that come from heaven, that may remove someone from his/her “personal slavery”. Consider those people having the same tedious and unsatisfying job for years, consider those living a routinely life, doing the same things or going to the same places year after year. Consider those that keep maintaining boring and unsatisfying relationships with their partner. Consider those having a lack of communication with their children, their grandchildren, etc. Those are all psychological tendencies of slavery. Hence, in those moments, one should take advantage of the opportunity during which this "light illuminates from the heavens": That bright idea that has just occurred to you, that email just received, that specific moment when one decides to DO something, to follow an intuition, even if it is not completely clear, in other words to ACT BY ABSOLUTE FAITH that the Eternal God id doing this for good.

The Torah does not ask us to stop eating bread, but not to eat leavened bread. The Hebrew word for leavened is CHAMETZ and interestingly in the modern Hebrew, the concept "to miss out on something" is LEACHMITZ and has practically the same root. If they had waited for the CHAMETZ the people of Israel would have LEACHMITZ - missed the departure from Egypt. Chaza”l (the sages) compare leavening with bad inclinations that prevent you from acting and also consider the ego as the source of bad inclinations. When a person decides to do or avoid fulfilling something that is against the Creator's will, he is serving his ego (his inner chametz). That is why on Passover, when the people of Israel come out of slavery, the fundamental concept of freedom is not to do what you want (that is debauchery by the way) or to BE ALONE AND FREE in the world, but to live fully in society and therefore we cannot allow the ego (chametz) to “inflate” or “grow” or “rise” (like a leavened mass) and thus create harm to those who surround us.

In the Zohar (of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai), Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, asked his father: "But if chametz represents so many negative things, how is it that we eat chametz all year round?" Rabi Shimon replied that it is like a patient who needs to take medicine for seven days, and when he is cured, he no longer needs it and can continue his life as usual. These seven days are called “מיכלא דאסוותא” MíCHLE DEASúTA which means HEALING BREAD, (by the way, that's the name of an important hospital in Israel: ASÚTA). This is the period that we eat simple and unleavened bread, without shapes, neither special flavors, nor cakes, nor added flavors... nothing, as simple and straightforward as possible. A bread that improves the soul and deflates pride, the terrible ego.

The word CHAMETZ חמץ backwards reads TZAMACH צמח which means DEVELOPMENT (or growth) and this is precisely the idea: CHAMETZ is passive, the routine of the rest of the days of the year. This week we stop to hide the CHAMETZ and turn it into TZAMACH, it is a spiritual reset, an opportunity to grow and develop. In Hebrew flowers it is said TZOMCHIM, they bloom, from the same root of TZAMACH, and that is when spring begins and all the mountains are covered with flowers.

Rab Sofer brings a curious gematria with the words CHAMETZ חמץ and MATZA מצה. In both words the common letters are Mem מ, and Tzadi צ, the only difference between them are the two letters: Jet ח (8) and Hei ה (5) whose "difference" between them is 3 (8-5 = 3), According to Pirkei Avot 2:14 those are three things that prevent our development and eventually our eternal life:

רבי יהושוע אומר, עין רעה ויצר הרע ושנאת הברייות, מוציאין את האדם מן העולם.

"Rabbi Yehoshua says: The evil eye (greed towards others), bad instincts, and hatred of living beings remove human beings from the world to come". It is the instincts of greed, enmity and hatred that we try to avoid, the chametz that we need to BURN on the Passover morning and avoid having them this week (and even see them in our houses). It is a reboot of our soul towards true spiritual freedom. When a human being understands this concept, he is free from his mind, from within, and he is truly free. This is the most important message in the entire Passover celebration: More than a physical freedom, it is about a spiritual growth and with it, the liberation of your mind and your soul.

Jag Pesach Kasher veSameaj!

Have a happy and Kasher Passover feast and Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi David Laor

April 26^th, 2020