Pesach Message
The Jewish festival of Pesach is exciting, fun, delicious, uplifting, powerfully meaningful, and totally inspiring. At the same time, with so many intricate customs and traditions shaping the holiday, preparing for and celebrating Pesach can be somewhat involved and challenging. A little basic guidance is right here!
Preparing for Pesach includes house cleaning, shopping for Pesach foods, and getting ready for the seider. Observing Pesach involves eating matzah, not having chameitz, attending a seider, and going to services.
The seider (which means order) is a prescribed service that takes place sitting around a table with friends and family to recount and relive the story of the liberation and exodus of the Jewish people thousands of years ago. We use the Haggadah which is a booklet containing a beautiful rich text that takes us through Jewish history, morals, customs, direction, and destiny, using stories, symbols, lessons, songs, and foods. Enjoy your seider!
Two central mitzvot (commandments) of Pesach are – for the entire 7-day holiday – to eat matzah (buy plenty of it in advance!), and to not eat or have in our possession any chameitz (food made from 5 specific grains: wheat, barley, oats, rye, spelt).
Eating matzah isn’t complicated (hint: eat matzah!).
But how do we get rid of all our chameitz? Do we throw it out? Do we give it away? Do we sell it? Setting aside the complex analyses and practices of this matter, here is a simple and straight forward approach involving a few steps to enjoy as we rid ourselves of chameitz for Pesach. One step is a process of thoroughly cleaning our domicile to make it “Pesach-clean-and-ready” (as chamietz-free as possible!) by the time the holiday begins. Then there are the fun rituals of b’dikat chameitz (searching for the chameitz) and bi’ur chameitz (burning the chameitz). The night before Pesach, one member of the family hides small non-crumby pieces of bread in several strategic places throughout the home. Then everyone gathers for the search: using a lit candle, a big cloth, a wooden cooking spoon, and a feather, the candle-holder leads everyone to each of those strategically placed pieces of bread; the one holding the feather carefully sweeps the pieces of bread onto the spoon and cloth. When all the pieces have been collected, the extinguished candle and the feather are placed on the spoon and the surrounding cloth is tightly closed and tied up. The next morning, after eating your last chamietz breakfast before Pesach, the ‘last-of-the-chameitz’ collection is burned outside in a small aluminum pan. A passage is recited in Aramaic attesting to our having done our best to rid ourselves of chamietz. (Here is the passage in English: All leaven or anything leavened which is in my possession, which I have neither seen nor removed, and about which I am unaware, shall be considered nullified and ownerless as the dust of the earth.) In addition, one is also suposed to keep all of one’s chameitz out of sight for the duration of Pesach (which also helps avoid possible temptation!).
In addition, many people “sell” their chameitz as another step in getting rid of all their chameitz. In this transaction, the chameitz is ‘sold’ to an “outsider,” an action whose legitimacy is open to question, more so since it amounts to a legal fiction. I prefer not to “use” an “outsider” to celebrate Pesach with a legal fiction, so years ago I created a special document which serves to absolve the signer of possessing chameitz for the seven day duration of Pesach without throwing the chameitz away and without using an “outsider.” If you would like to “get rid” of your chameitz in this way, please contact me to obtain the form which you would sign and return to me.
So why do all this? I find it meaningful to try to make Pesach as pure as possible, to make it as free of the forbidden as possible, to make it as liberated from the burden of chameitz (homiletically often associated with ordinariness, inflated or rising ego, and the physical rat-race of life) as possible – by getting rid of all my chameitz food for Pesach. This year, especially with all happening now around us, all this preparation should further serve to remind us of Pesach’s central themes and eternally relevant messages: how vital and treasured are our Jewish inner essence and outward Jewish identity; how pivotal it is to shed the yolk of tyranny, defeat evil, and acclaim liberty; keeping in mind always just how precious and fragile liberty is, and work to ensure its ongoing thriving; and focusing always on how all this must be gratefully, proudly, and joyfully embraced and celebrated.
If you have any questions, or need more Pesach-preparation guidance, don’t hesitate to be in touch with me. In the meantime, enjoy your Pesach prep – and especially your Pesach celebration!
Chag Pesach kasher v’sameiach!
Rabbi Jonathan Pearl, PhD