This is my first thorough attempt at Bedikat Hametz (Searching for Leaven). Boy, has it been a process. I cannot believe how much has leaven (yeast, flour, gluten, etc) in it. Almost everything is not kosher for Passover. I’m sure Jillian Michaels or Bob Harper would be proud of my carb-free (save the matzah) house. Passover is a physical and spiritual diet.
What’s all this hulabaloo about leaven? Let’s look at a few passages for clues. The first is from Torah and the second is from Rabbi Shaul.
“Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste–so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.” Deuteronomy 16:3 (See also Exodus 12:8-17, Exodus 34:18, Leviticus 23:6
“Your boasting is not good. 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 Yeshua, 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 without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.” I Corinthians 5:6-8 (See also Galatians 5:9- A little leaven leavens the whole lump…)
The first passage is physical. The second passage is spiritual…and vice versa. The Lord never puts something in the Word just to be picky. There is always a reason. The physical always represents a spiritual principle. Something as tiny as leaven can effect the entire chemistry of a dish.
The riding of leaven in one’s house and the abstaining from leavened products reminds me of several things: holiness is a sacrifice, godliness take self-examination, sin is everywhere whether we realize it or not, and I need to look to the only “unleavened person”,Yeshua the Messiah.
This week is an opportunity for spiritual contemplation. It is the first week of the Season of Redemption. But how can we truly make progress until we let go of the baggage of our pet sins? This entire Passover week I’ll be focusing on Psalm 51.
1Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
5Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6Surely you desire truth in the inner partsa;
you teachb me wisdom in the inmost place.
7Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
14Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17The sacrifices of God arec a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
18In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
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