April 1, 2025

The Soul's Spring Cleaning: PESACH TIME!

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Season 8

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What makes chametz so forbidden during Passover, and what more profound spiritual lessons can we learn from this ritual prohibition? This exploration takes us beyond the surface-level understanding of leavened bread to uncover profound insights into personal growth and spiritual development.

The Jewish tradition defines chametz as foods containing leavening agents from five specific grains—barley, rye, oats, wheat, and spelt—mixed with water and allowed to stand raw for over 18 minutes. But the significance goes far deeper than culinary concerns. The Torah repeatedly emphasizes the importance of completely removing chametz during Passover, which has serious spiritual consequences for those who deliberately consume it.

Drawing from Talmudic wisdom, we discover that "the yeast in the dough" symbolizes the Yetzer Hara—our evil inclinations or harmful impulses. Just as chametz puffs up bread through fermentation, our egos and negative traits can inflate and distort our true spiritual nature. The rabbinic requirement to search for chametz (Bedikas Chametz) before nullifying and removing it offers a powerful metaphor for personal development. Beforee we can overcome our character flaws, we must honestly acknowledge and identify them.

As you prepare for Passover this year, consider expanding your cleaning ritual to include "Bedikas Neshama"—soul searching. Examine areas in your life that need improvement, whether in prayer, Torah study, or personal character. Removing chametz becomes a tangible reminder of the inner work required for true spiritual freedom. Take time for this more profound preparation and experience Passover not just as a historical commemoration, but as a personal journey toward liberation from what holds you back from your highest potential.

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Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com



Chapters

00:00 - What is Chametz and Why Forbidden?

00:37 - Torah's Multiple Prohibitions

01:05 - Spiritual Meaning Behind Chametz

02:04 - Soul Searching Before Cleaning

03:25 - Bedikas Chametz as Self-Examination

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:04.331
What is chametz and what makes it so bad?

00:00:04.331 --> 00:00:07.206
Let's answer the first question first.

00:00:07.206 --> 00:00:29.911
Chametz they are foods with leavening agents, specifically barley rye, oats, wheat, spelt One of the five grains mixed with a bit of water, left to stand raw for up to 18 minutes and you have yourself a big fat portion of chametz.

00:00:29.911 --> 00:00:32.646
And what makes it so bad?

00:00:32.646 --> 00:00:37.149
That Hashem said we shouldn't have chametz on Pesach.

00:00:37.149 --> 00:00:44.426
The Torah tells us many times about how a Jew should remove all chametz in an active way.

00:00:44.426 --> 00:00:45.942
It seems A positive commandment.

00:00:45.942 --> 00:00:49.551
Not to have chametz in your possession is the second time we're told in the Torah.

00:00:49.551 --> 00:01:02.240
And a third mentioning of chametz not to eat chametz or even something that has a mixture, just even the slightest flavor, or molecule of chametz maybe.

00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:06.319
Or molecule of chametz maybe.

00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:25.388
The Torah says and if one does proactively, with intent, consume a KitKat bar or a pretzel on Pesach, the punishment is that the soul is cut off from all of the divine benevolence and shefa left in the graveyard of souls because of chomets.

00:01:25.388 --> 00:01:28.105
And that's what makes it so bad, because hashem said so.

00:01:28.105 --> 00:01:44.972
But we do get a little bit of a peek into the penemius, a peek into the rationale, a peek behind the curtain, if you will as to what chomets can really mean to us as we're cleaning for it and why it is so bad and what may have been part of the Chachmas Hashem.

00:01:44.972 --> 00:01:49.891
It's in Mesech Debrachas, daph, yud Zayin, amad Aleph.

00:01:49.891 --> 00:01:56.144
It tells us a tefillah of Rabbi Alexandri, after he would pray Shemona Esrei, before he took three steps back.

00:01:56.144 --> 00:02:00.462
That, god, I want to do your will, but something's holding me back, umi Ma'akev.

00:02:00.462 --> 00:02:02.689
What holds us back from doing your will?

00:02:02.689 --> 00:02:06.069
What holds us back from doing your will?

00:02:06.069 --> 00:02:15.347
The yeast in the dough and the subjugation of the kingdoms.

00:02:15.347 --> 00:02:15.788
What is the?

00:02:15.788 --> 00:02:18.393
It is the Yetzir Hara that holds us back.

00:02:18.393 --> 00:02:34.665
It's not the conversation today as to how Rashi found out that the is the Yetzir Hara, but what is our takeaway today is that the yeast, that the leavening agent mixed with one of the five grains that is turning into chametz, it represents for us.

00:02:34.665 --> 00:02:37.180
The yeast in the dough is the Yetzir Hara.

00:02:37.180 --> 00:02:39.185
It stands between us.

00:02:39.185 --> 00:02:42.592
Perfection, the yeast in the dough.

00:02:43.741 --> 00:03:00.348
But I'd like to tell you that, before you fulfill the positive commandment about getting rid of the yitzhahara and the yeast in the dough, which is a requirement that we call bitl, or maybe part of the mitzvah of bi-ur, you need to nullify it because you need to get rid of it.

00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:04.251
Before all of that, there's a rabbinic commandment to search for it.

00:03:04.251 --> 00:03:24.554
So if we bring this muscle all the way home, that we're trying to get rid of bad attributes in the Sorsha B'Issa, you must first recognize that the sages require us to do some soul searching and to do some house searching, to do some Bedikas Chumetz, to find the areas that need a little extra attention.

00:03:24.554 --> 00:03:29.882
Find the areas that need a little extra attention, some areas, like it said on my report card, that need improvement.

00:03:29.882 --> 00:03:45.716
So take time, as you are cleaning, to do B'dikas Neshama, to do B'dikas Hametz and find the Sa'ar Shavu'isa Character, perfection time for Torah, study, prayer, concentration, think about it, and after that then you go about getting rid of the chametz.

00:03:45.716 --> 00:03:51.027
After badikas chametz then comes the bitzl and the be or chametz.

00:03:51.027 --> 00:03:54.820
But first take some soul searching, some badikas chametz.

00:03:54.820 --> 00:04:08.671
Thanks for watching.