Preparing for Passover: Senior seminar Final Session

(טו) שִׁבְעַ֤ת יָמִים֙ מַצּ֣וֹת תֹּאכֵ֔לוּ אַ֚ךְ בַּיּ֣וֹם הָרִאשׁ֔וֹן תַּשְׁבִּ֥יתוּ שְּׂאֹ֖ר מִבָּתֵּיכֶ֑ם כִּ֣י ׀ כָּל־אֹכֵ֣ל חָמֵ֗ץ וְנִכְרְתָ֞ה הַנֶּ֤פֶשׁ הַהִוא֙ מִיִּשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מִיּ֥וֹם הָרִאשֹׁ֖ן עַד־י֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִעִֽי׃

Exodus 12:15

(15) Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; On the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whoever eats leavened bread that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day until the seventh day.

דברים ט״ז:ג׳

(ג) לֹא־תֹאכַ֤ל עָלָיו֙ חָמֵ֔ץ שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִ֛ים תֹּֽאכַל־עָלָ֥יו מַצּ֖וֹת לֶ֣חֶם עֹ֑נִי כִּ֣י בְחִפָּז֗וֹן יָצָ֙אתָ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם לְמַ֣עַן תִּזְכֹּר֔ אֶת־י֤וֹם צֵֽאתְךָ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם כֹּ֖ל יְמֵ֥י חַיֶּֽיךָ׃

Deuteronomy 16:3

(3) You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction; for in haste you came forth out of the land of Egypt; so that you remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

Yeast is in theory immortal. The Israelite chronometric system, however, and their entire world-view presuppose that time is not a continuous stream. It is and must be periodically interrupted... [e.g. he Sabbath, Sabbatical Year, and the Jubilee] The laws of unleavened bread ensure that the bread by which people live does not transcend time, at least within the Holy Land. Once a year, all yeast must be killed, with a week of separation before the souring of a new batch...Leaven symbolizes the undesirable: misfortune, evil intensions and especially ritual impurity. To purge it is to make a fresh start, to experience catharsis. This understanding fits well with the historical context of the holiday. In the month of the New Grain, the Hebrews cast off centuries of oppression and assumed a holier, more ascetic status for their desert wanderings and subsequent national life. - Anchor Bible Commentary to Exodus 1-18, p. 43

Matzah is, therefore, both the bread of freedom and the erstwhile bread of slavery. It is not unusual for ex-slaves to invert the very symbols of slavery to express their rejection of the masters’ values. But there is a deeper meaning in the double-edged symbolism of matzah. It would have been easy to set up a stark dichotomy: matzah is the bread of the Exodus way, the bread of freedom; hametz is the bread eaten in the house of bondage, in Egypt. Or vice versa: matzah is the hard ration, slave food; hametz is the rich, soft food to which free people treat themselves. That either/or would be too simplistic. Freedom is in the psyche, not in the bread.The point is subtle but essential. To be fully realized, an Exodus must include an inner voyage, not just a march on the road out of Egypt. “- Rabbi Irving Greenberg

ברוך אתה ה' אלוקינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על בעור חמץ

Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh Haloam, Asher kidshanu Bmitzvotav, Vitzivanu al biur Chametz

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, whose commandments make us holy and commanded us on the removal of the leaven

כל חמירא וחמיעא דאיכא ברשותי, דלא חזיתיה ודלא בערתיה, לבטיל ולהוי

Kol Chamira v Chamiya D'ikah breshuti, d'lo Chamitei u'd'lo bi'artei livtil v'l'hevei hefker k'afra d'arah.

All chametz or leaven in my possession that I have not seen, and have not destroyed, shall be nullified and become ownerless, like the dust of the earth."