Bedikat Chametz

Every year before Passover begins, observant families will do a massive spring cleaning in which they remove every speck of leaven (chametz) from their house. This comes from the commandment that during the week long Feast of Unleavened Bread, you are supposed to eat only matzah and not have any chametz in your house. On the practical level, this is remembering that the children of Israel had to leave Egypt in haste and ate matzah since they did not have time to let their bread rise. On a spiritual level, though, going through this process every year is a powerful object lesson. In the Bible, leaven is often used as a symbol of the sin and imperfection in our lives. Rabbi (Apostle) Paul, commenting on leaven and Passover in relation to personal holiness, said to the Corinthians, “Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are. For Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread made without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor 5:6-8)

With this in mind, the process of bedikat chamtetz (removing leaven) is very humbling. Every time I thought I had found all the crumbs and leaven in my kitchen, there was always another crack or corner with some more. With some things (like my toaster) it seemed the only solution would be to get rid of it entirely. It’s a fitting picture of the sin in my own life. Whenever I think that I’ve finally removed the various sins that work their way through and permeate my life, I realize there’s still more to be found as I dig deeper. Really, there’s no way to get rid of all the chametz in my life no matter how deep I scrub or how long I spend at it. It’s only by receiving a completely new life that I can actually be spotless. But that’s what Yeshua did for me. Paul points out that we should “be a new batch without yeast – as you really are” to remind us that we have actually been made new and completely cleansed because “Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” This is great news to begin the holiday of Passover.

Chag Sameach! Happy Passover!