CTeenConnection

Chametz; ‘passing over’; the Seder.  There are so many different aspects of Pesach. I have always known some things about Pesach, but it took learning the deeper meanings behind the Seder and all of the customs that helped me appreciate the holiday even more. Each aspect has its own profound, practical lesson. My favorite lesson is one we can learn from the most famous Pesach food, matzah. 

 Matzah might not be everyone’s favorite food, but it has many lessons to teach us. Matzah is very different from the food we all  look forward to every week, a super fluffy challah (sorry gluten-free people). Challah is composed of many ingredients such as eggs, oil, and flour. Comparatively, matzah is super simple made of just flour and water. As a result, Challah is puffed up and fluffy, while matzah is flat. 

What can we understand from this? Bread, or rising flour based foods, represent ego, while matzah, which is flat, represents humility. It’s really easy to let our ego’s ‘puff up’ like challah, right? We get caught up in life, in our needs and desires. Egos take up a lot of space in our hearts and minds. Restraining from bread throughout Pesach and switching to matzah instead, helps us understand the importance of taking a step back and letting humility run the show. If we’re too full of ourselves, we’re taking away the room that Hashem could fill. 

This brings me to cleaning. Pesach is notorious for being the holiday of “spring cleaning.” Why do we spend so many weeks in advance flipping couch cushions, vacuuming in places that haven’t been looked at since last Passover, and making our kitchens look like they’ve never been used? We want to make sure our homes are as clean as possible from chametz, or any foods produced with flour that aren’t marked “Kosher for Passover.’ We do this so that we can embrace the matzah and the holiday of Passover with the sense of humility needed to connect with Hashem. Because chametz, just like ego, can accumulate very quickly.

From experience, I’ve found that the ego is a very stubborn character, and that it takes a lot of work to refine it to make room for humility. However, the best things in life don’t come easy- sorry for the cliche, but I’ve found it to be true. So with that, I hope that this year we can all find even more room within ourselves for Hashem, and I really hope to see y’all in Jerusalem very soon. 🙂 

Picture credits: www.chabad.org