Scrubbing the house clean as if the Queen were coming is the way I remember preparing for Pesach as a child. Somehow it seemed that every piece of dirt qualified as Chametz and that there was a verse in the Torah stating, “Thou shalt Spring Clean.”
True, getting rid of Chametz is a difficult task. With children, it is downright daunting. Consider the places kids love to “store” food: backpacks, in their clothing or desk drawers, inside Bob the Builder’s truck, stuck into the crevice of their “reserved spot” in the car, and so on. So, I can understand the neurotic approach to cleaning.
The challenge, however, is to recall the reason we purge our homes from Chametz. Leaven, the mystics explain, represents ego and arrogance. On Pesach, it’s time for an annual spiritual deep-cleaning. We strive for humility, embodied in the flat and tasteless Matzah.
We prepare for reliving our birth as a nation. We come full-circle with the energy of redemption and freedom that prevails during Pesach. We come face-to-face with our own souls and millennia of Jewish identity.
***
Ultimately, it is this spiritual awakening that we must be in sync with. If we are angry or frustrated, if we feel overwhelmed or if we quarrel – we are missing the entire point of Pesach. Without compromising on the sanctity of the holiday and its preparations, let’s make sure we also focus on the soul of Pesach.
Pesach will come and go, but will we be the same?