Rabbi's Sermons

Shabat Shalom and Hag Sameach!

This week there is not reading of the Parasha. Today is Pesach VII, almost finishing the festivity of Passover! It has been a long week during which many were somehow affected by not eating normal bread and keeping away from any kind of Chametz. But what is the essence of this prohibition? What is Matzah and what is Chametz? Which is the real reason behind the prohibition of Chametz? Tonight, I will bring you some ideas to make “Seder”, in Hebrew order on this subject that creates lots of confusion.

By definition Matzah is a dough that has not risen, and it is eaten during the seven or eight days of Pesach, in remembrance of the fact that there was no time for the dough to rise during the Exodus from Egypt, at the time the order to leave was given by Moses. Consider that it takes at least 18 minutes to rise, which is the MAXIMUM time the flour can be in contact with water before entering the hot oven for matzah production. In other words, they left their homes in less than 18 minutes… that's the practical explanation, literally, but what's the underlying reason? What is the spiritual reason behind this practical explanation?

Spiritually, when our ancestors left Egypt, "they did not stop or began to make questions". If they had begun to think about it, they would have asked themselves many questions: “How are we now leaving our homes for the desert, even though we are slaves? What are we going to take? What are we going to eat? Will we have enough? Who will protect us if we don't have an army? Who will decide the path? What are we going to do if something happens to Moses? Or Aharon?”

If they would started asking those questions, they would had wasted precious time. They realized there was no time to ask questions, just to LEAVE! Not even to think about it, just DO IT! (like the Nike logo).

Likewise, there are moments in a person's life when many questions are asked as well, we search, we investigate, valuable time is wasted. There are decisive moments that come from heaven, which free a person from a kind of "slavery" call it: the same job for years, a routine life, apathy in relationships with their partner, lack of communication with their children, etc., so the person must take advantage of time, of that "light that shines from above", the idea that has just popped up your mind, that moment when you decide to DO something, to follow your intuition, even if you don't fully understand it. In other words, ACT BY ABSOLUTE FAITH in the Eternal that what you are going to do, is for the best.

CHAMETZ in Hebrew means “leavened”, and interestingly, also from the same root "to miss out" in Hebrew is: LEACHMITZ. If they had waited for CHAMETZ, the people of Israel would have LEACHMITZ the opportunity to leave Egypt. Chazal (the sages) compare leaven to the evil inclinations that prevent one from acting and consider the ego to be the root of evil inclinations. When a person decides to do things or not to do things that are against the will of the Creator, they are serving their ego - their chametz. Therefore, on Pesach, when the people of Israel emerged from slavery, the basic idea is that freedom is not about being alone, being lonely in the world, but rather about living in society, and therefore we cannot allow the ego-the chametz, "to inflate" or "to grow" or "to rise" (like a leavened dough) and cause harm to those around us.

In the Zohar (by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai), there is a question from Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai: "Father, if chametz represents so many negative things, why is it that we eat chametz all year round?". Rabbi Shimon answered that it is like a patient who needs to take medication, but when he is cured, he no longer needs it and can continue as usual. These seven days are called "מיכלא דאסוותא" MICHLE DEASÚTA, which means BREAD OF HEALING (by the way, the name of an important hospital in Israel is ASÚTA). This means Pesach is the period of eating simple bread that eventually improves the soul and reduces pride and ego.

The Hebrew word CHAMETZ חמץ read backwards is TZAMACH צמח, which means DEVELOPMENT (of growth), and this is precisely the idea: CHAMETZ is passive, the routine of the remaining days of the year. This week asks from you to hide the CHAMETZ and turn it into TZAMACH, into a restart, into a growth and development. In Hebrew the word to indicate the flowers bloom is TZOMCHIM, again from the same root as TZAMACH, is when spring begins and all the mountains are covered with flowers.

Rabbi Sofer presents a curious gematria with the words CHAMETZ חמץ and MATZA מצה. In both 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 arithmetical difference in the values between them is 3 (8-5=3), and according to Pirkei Avot 2:14 there are three things that prevent our development and the after life: “Rabbi Yehoshua says: The evil eye (greed toward others), evil instincts, and hatred of living beings remove a human being from the World to Come”. It is the instincts of greed, enmity, and hatred that we must try to avoid, the chametz that we must BURN on Passover morning, and avoid having them this week (and even seeing them in our homes). It is a reset of our soul toward true freedom.

When we being to understand this concept, we shall be free in our minds and shall be really free. This is the entire message, and the most important one of all Passover.

Shabat Shalom and Chag Sameach!

Rabbi David Laor

April 18^th, 2025