Bye bye chametz
Will returning back to our “normal lives” with sports, shopping, social gatherings and work allow us to really be free? Image by iStock
We all heard it before and most of us know it to be true, “money can’t buy happiness”— but do we really live like that?
Do we spend more time at work making money or more time with our families?
Do we spend more time online or more time being present?
Do we spend more time acquiring more things or more time enjoying the things we own?
Do we spend more time Pesach cleaning or more time wondering why we have so much stuff?
Self-quarantining during this unprecedented time in history, has ultimately revealed to us that our values were mixed up all along. Pesach is here for us to recognize and appreciate what it means to be free. Our Exodus from Egypt was the essence of freedom.
Rav Zelig Pliskin (citing the Ohr Hachayim) points out that the Jewish people were physically freed the day they left Egypt, but the Torah records it later, after the sea split, “On that day, Hashem saved Israel from the hand of Egypt, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore” (Exodus 14:30). Freedom is not a physical state of being- it’s an emotional state of mind. The Jewish people were liberated only once they saw their enemies dead. The freedom was no longer just a physical release from bondage, it was an emotional freedom in their hearts.
We may be physically free after the quarantine is over (G-d willing soon), but will returning back to our “normal lives” with sports, shopping, social gatherings and work allow us to really be free? Do we feel free with so many obligations? So much to buy, so much to do? What if being free meant choosing to say “no” sometimes? No to that extra hour at work away from our families in pursuit of money to buy more stuff, or no to our phones constantly buzzing for our attention.
Living free is living with intention and purpose. Living free is forgoing screen FaceTime for actual face-time with the people we are closest to. It is consciously choosing to do what you truly value and love more: answering texts or listening to your spouse talk about his or her day at the dinner table? Scrolling on Instagram or reading a meaningful book before going to sleep? Pesach reminds us how to be free, by letting go of the excess in our life. Chametz represents these things.
There is a positive commandment in the Torah to remove all chametz from one’s home, “For a seven day period shall you eat matzot, but on the previous day you shall nullify the leaven from your homes” (Exodus 12:15). Later, there is an additional commandment to eat matzah and not to have chametz in one’s domain, “…in the evening you shall eat matzot…leaven may not be found in your homes…”(Exodus 12: 18-19).
The Torah could have plainly told us not to possess any chametz, but instead commands us first and foremost, to remove the chametz then a second time not to possess it. Why the redundancy dealing with chametz? Why do we need to first get rid of chametz before eating matzah? To begin living more simply and with more value, we have to remove all that makes life complicated. It could mean removing the candy in your home and try eating more fruits or removing the cell phone from your bedroom try focusing on your spouse. All the “chametz” that takes away from what we truly want to do and who we truly want to be.
Removing Chametz becomes the priority for the holiday, while symbolizing the first step in simplifying our lives — ridding ourselves of any distractions. Year after year, we clean our houses intensely but it never seems to last. We frantically turn each room upside down once again, careful not to keep a mess, only to do the same next year.
Alternatively, we could clean our homes with the intention to remove what does not belong (once and for all), what might take us away from what (or who) we sincerely love. This could mean donating that extra third winter coat sitting in our closet to someone who might need it and wearing our favorite winter coat more instead. It could mean no longer continuously buying more of the same stuff year after year.
How do we kick this habit? The Torah hints at the solution. Only after we remove chametz, we are commanded to eat matzah. Only after we remove the excess, we can experience the joy of our values.
The commandment to eat Matzah is a reminder to end the vicious cycle of clutter and life’s distractions we encounter yearly. Matzah is a simple bread: its only ingredients are flour and water, nothing else – the bread that represents our freedom. Chametz on the other hand, is a lot more complex. Chametz requires more of our time and more ingredients. Chametz is excess.
Matzah was the bread we grabbed in our rush to freedom. It was enough to nourish us. It was all we needed. A simple life is freeing. To live in this way means we don’t have to buy more and clutter our homes once again with things that don’t bring us happiness. It means Pesach cleaning doesn’t have to be so stressful. Once we remove the chametz, the distractions, we can make way for what is truly valuable, whether it be our favorite items, our favorite people, or using our time and energy doing what we love.
We know in our hearts materialism does not make us happy, but have we ever stopped to think whether we are truly living the simple life our soul desires? We left Egypt with our simple bread. We had our loved ones, our few valuables, and matzah. In fact, it would be some of the valuables that led to our greatest national disaster.
The Alshikh (Devarim 1:1) points out that the Jewish people had taken spoils from Egypt, but they ended up using it to sin with the Golden Calf. Attaining more can lead to bigger problems, like getting carried away with buying more in hopes to find happiness, or even worse – disconnecting from God as the Jews did with the Golden Calf. As the Jewish people used spoils to create a false god, we too can fall into the trap of worshipping materialism.
We have Pesach to get rid of all the chametz, all the excess in our lives. Our quarantine isolation might be physical, but it too will eventually end and the question we must ask ourselves will be: what will we do with this new freedom? As Pesach approaches, we find our real sense of freedom. At the Seder Table, when we sit back without any chametz in our homes, we can see our values when we eat our simple, untainted Matzah. We can choose to live in the present moment, with intention, doing what we love. We can worship God instead of our stuff.
Joshua Becker, founder of BecomingMinimalist.com, and Wall Street Journal best-selling author of “The More of Less” sums it up beautifully, “Once we let go of the things that don’t matter, we are free to pursue all the things that really do.”
Robin Rendel is a striving Minimalist living in Queens N.Y. with hope to spread the joy of owning less and mindful living to the world at large. Feel free to e-mail her at [email protected]
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