This
Friday is the first seder of Passover. I hear complaints from many people,
myself included, about not only eating matzah for a week, but no leavened
products at all! Matzah tends to be like cardboard, depends what you put on it,
but the Infamous Passover desserts, OMG. Some, until recently, were used by
three letter agencies instead of waterboarding to extract information! By the
way, I do not hold with the thought that eating leaven during Passover will
bring Divine Punishment – but I do take
the lesson and the discipline of it seriously!
A
few things about leaven. Nothing with leaven was ever offered on the
sacrificial altar in the Temple. Only flatbread, flour and water rolled and
baked quickly, before any fermentation began was offered. This would probably go with the idea that nothing spoiled, fermented or
decomposing was put on an altar to God. Wine was not used in the sacrifice
process either, only the blood of the animal.
What
is "Leaven?" It comes from
the Latin, levare, “to raise, a
substance used to produce fermentation to lighten a batter or dough or liquid;
usually yeast.” It also means “something that modifies, mingles, permeates and
infuses.” There are a host of things which modify, infuse and permeate our
lives on a regular basis, like False, Empty Values and Standards which
literally SPEW FORTH from our technical devises, confirming our deepest
insecurities, ultimately driving us to acquire some miracle product which will
be the answer to all our wishes!
For
me, Passover is another opportunity
to “live outside the box." Like
the Sabbath, Shabbat, we unplug from
the mundane, from all the anxieties, tensions and stress of our everyday lives.
Us unplugged.
At
Succoth, Tabernacles, which occurs
in the fall, we are supposed to eat in the Succah,
a simple hut, open to the sky. Except for electricity for light, no devices!
Why do this? Because it gives us perspective. It provides people the chance to
talk, to laugh, to sing to linger over a meal. It removes what normally
permeates our lives and allows a moment to breath, to reconsider, to review.
Maybe
there is a small lesson not having leaven products for the week, in remembering
that nothing with leaven was offered on the Temple altar, a Holy Place. Holy
also means separate. This is a symbolic way to do a SPRING CLEANING FOR THE
SOUL! We separate ourselves from what intrudes, infuses and permeates our
thoughts and our actions.
Lastly,
the Torah states that there should be no
leaven in our dwellings during Passover. The Sages were very creative in
their approach to leaven in a place. First after a thorough cleaning, the owner
of the home can recite an Aramaic statement that basically says, “I did what was required for Passover, if
there is any leaven somewhere not found, it is to be regarded as null.”
Also,
the place where leaven is stored, the custom is to sell the leaven to a non-Jew
for the week, so technically, it is not yours. Here is an opportunity to do
some TOV. I go through all the nonperishables with leaven and give them to the
local food pantry or my friend Pastor Roy's church. TOV made easy.
Can
we live without "the Leaven" of the familiar? That is up to each of
us.
Blessings in
this time of Renewal
Rabbi
Jeffrey Leynor
