Efrat, Israel - A wise teacher once said that our manner of greeting on the Passover holiday requires a fundamental change. People generally wish each other “Purim Sameach” (a joyous Purim) and “Pesach Kasher,” (a Kosher Passover). It ought be the opposite. Since we are required to drink wine and other inebriating beverages on Purim - “until we can no longer distinguish between praising Mordecai and cursing Haman” - it would be more logical to bless our friends with a Kasher Purim (despite the danger of the drink); and since we are required to clean so thoroughly (and sometimes even hysterically) in our removal of hametz (leavening) in preparation for the Festival, it would make more sense to bless our friends with a joyous Passover!

But why this frenetic cleaning? And even thought Rav Haim Soloveitchik of Brisk would attempt to relax his wife each year by telling her that dirt is not hametz according to the Talmud, she would respond wryly, “If I listened to you and your Talmud, we would all be eating hametz on Pesach, G-d forbid!” After all, even the slightest amount of leavening (hametz) left over by accident is enough to render an entire pot-full of food forbidden for Passover consumption - so it is logical to clean all the corners and empty all of the cupboards in every room where food may have entered.

Indeed, the very first Mishnah of the Tractate Pesachim begins, “on the eve of the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month Nissan (the evening before the night of the seder), it is necessary to search for the hametz by the light of a candle,” - clearly giving the message that Passover must be preceded by heavy-duty cleaning. But the gemara provides two fascinating verses which provide the basis of the hametz search by the light of a candle: “At that time (in the Messianic age of Redemption), I (G-d) will search out (the transgressions of) Jerusalem with candles” (Zephaniah 1), and “the candle of the Lord is the soul of man” (Proverbs 20). Clearly these verses are mandating an internal search as well as an external one, a dissolution of the stain of the soul as well as a cleansing of the cabinets of the kitchen.

But what religiously symbolic message is hametz trying to convey, what negative action is hametz attempting to teach us to deny, what internal characteristic is the Passover law attempting to uproot? Matzot have precisely the same Hebrew letters as mitzvot (Divine commandment), but what is there in hametz leavening which makes it such a no-no?

I would suggest that in order to understand the symbolism, it is necessary to bear in mind the chemical process involved in the process of leavening. When any of the five grains - wheat, rye, oats, barley, spelt - are mixed with water, the grain will naturally rise and turn into the risen loaf of bread or roll which we so much enjoy. Matzah requires human intervention before the leavening takes place. An individual must continually “work” the grain-water mixture and not allow it to lie dormant for eighteen minutes; and before eighteen minutes has passed, the individual must place the mixture in the oven to be baked. In effect, the necessity of producing matzah - and the prohibition against hametz - teaches us that we must not leave the development of our personalities up to the biological influences of our genes and our natural proclivities. Every individual can and must work on him/her self in order to change, to grow into the person he/she would like to become. Never say, “It is my nature to be angry, or to be stingy, or to be fat.” We must interfere with nature in order to achieve the desired result.

Indeed, the gemara tells a fascinating story about a person addicted to sex:“They said of Elazar b. Duradiya that there was no prostitute he hadn’t visited. He once heard that there was a prostitute in one of the coastal cities who took an entire purse of dinarim as her payment. He traversed seven rivers in order to have sex with her. At the time of the act, she flatulated. She said, ‘just as the expelled wind will never return to its place, so Elazar B. Duradiya will never be accepted in repentance.’”

The story goes on to record that he begged the mountains of valleys, the heavens and the earth, the sun the moon and the stars - all the manifestations of nature - to pray for him, but to no avail. “He finally said, ‘the matter is dependent only upon me,’ and he wept until he gave up his soul. A voice descended from heaven, declaring, R. Elazar b. Duradiya is welcome to eternal life’” (B. T. Avodah Zara 17a).

The Talmud is telling a classical story about an individual whose “nature” led him to sex addiction. The “mishap” during the sexual encounter drove home to him the disgustingness and the transitoriness of the life-style he was pursuing. He asks “nature” to come to his aid - but finally realizes that he must and can overcome his nature by himself! He learns the lesson of hametz and matzah.

There is one more message to our cleaning. Matzah is the grain and water without the added volume and “puff,” the excess baggage, which comes from fermentation. All of us carry around “excess baggage,” - resentments, angry feelings - even against family members - which we must get rid of in order to enable us to establish proper relationships. Our external cleaning ought reflect an internal cleansing which will enable us to recognize the demons at our doorsteps but give us the strength to successfully vanquish them! After all, Elijah the herald of redemption will first and foremost enable families to live with each other in peace, when the hearts of the parents will be turned to the children and the heart of the children to the parents.

Shabbat Shalom, and Hag Kasher VeSameach.