Expel that yeast! (And get rid of the thorn from your own life) J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Posted By admin on April 9, 2022
TheTorah columnis supported by a generous donation from Eve Gordon-Ramek in memory of Kenneth Gordon.MetzoraLeviticus 14:115:33
This week, Jews around the world start the arduous task of cleaning their homes for Passover.
But why does the Torah command us to clear out our house of all chametz (leavened bread) during Passover?
It is logical to eat matzah; this fast food has a historical connection to the Exodus, recalling our hurried escape from Egyptian slavery. But how does clearing out leavened bread from our homes relate to the Passover theme of freedom and spiritual growth?
There are two aspects to attaining spiritual growth and transformation. First, one needs to grow in kindness and holiness. But spiritual growth and real transformation also require letting go of addictions or bad habits we currently have. There must be loss for there to be greater gain. We must give up the comfort of remaining the same and thats difficult.
Heres a helpful analogy: Imagine you have a thorn in your arm that directly touches a nerve. When the thorn is bumped, its very painful and makes it difficult to move through life. You have two choices:
1. You can make sure nothing touches it.
2. You can take it out.
The effects of this choice will determine the course of the rest of your life.
Heres why: If you choose to keep the thorn in, you have to protect yourself by making sure nothing touches it. If you walk in a crowded shopping center, you have to constantly avoid people so the thorn doesnt get bumped. You fall in love. Its hard to have someone near you when youve got a thorn touching a nerve. Your spouse will be getting on your nerves.
You see, the thorn completely runs your life. It affects all your decisions. If you dont address the thorn itself, you cant be a free person. You are enslaved to the thorn.
We all have such thorns in us. Maybe it is the thorn of addiction, the thorn of arrogance, the thorn of bitterness, or anger. Maybe it is the thorn of abuse, the thorn of divorce, the thorn of abandonment, the thorn of insecurity.
There are many thorns that enter our life, some by our own doing, some without a personal invitation on our part.
But most of us have a thorn we hold onto and we refuse to remove it. We fear removing the thorn will be hard and painful. And we design our whole life around it. We dont realize that weve become slaves to that thorn.
What is chametz?
It is a foreign substance added to the dough, yeast, which makes it rise. It changes the doughs natural shape and characteristics. The Talmud (Berakhot 17a) tells us this is symbolic of the foreign substances, the thorns, that enter life. The destruction of all leaven in the house symbolizes the removal of all thorns that prevent us from realizing our spiritual aspirations.
So the holiday of Pesach tells us: Its time to wake up and leave your inner Egypt. Get rid of the thorn, the Chametz we hold on to that limits our lives. Its time to be what God has designed us for; free to be our truest selves.
Good luck with the cleaning and have a great Passover!
Read more from the original source:
- Now Is the Time to Start the Jerusalem Talmud! - Dive into our new ... - Chabad.org - September 16th, 2023
- The Talmud for Today's World | Tevi Troy and Noam Wasserman - First Things - September 14th, 2023
- JLI: The Crazy History of the Talmud - CrownHeights.info - September 14th, 2023
- How Leonard Cohen and the Talmud Helped Me Change My Name - Alma - August 30th, 2023
- Making Talmud study for women the norm, not the exception - eJewish Philanthropy - July 12th, 2023
- Marking the printed Talmud at 500 - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - June 27th, 2023
- Photo Gallery: Kids of Talmud Torah Aleksander visiting the Skulen ... - Boro Park 24 - June 27th, 2023
- Pop singer almost as popular as the Talmud - The Times of Israel - June 22nd, 2023
- How I Made it Through the Talmud - Chabad.org - June 12th, 2023
- Women in Talmud: Who Would You Be in the Third Century? - thejewishchronicle.net - June 4th, 2023
- MHM explores Nazi readings of the Talmud - Australian Jewish News - May 26th, 2023
- The Talmud is the reason Jews make such good romcoms - The Jewish Chronicle - May 26th, 2023
- Eyeing talmud Torah as a springboard to action - The Jewish Star - May 22nd, 2023
- What Is the Talmud, and Is It Beneficial for Christians? - May 11th, 2023
- Iranian Diplomat: The Jews Have a Plot to Lay Claim to the British Royal Familys Wealth - Middle East Media Research Institute - October 6th, 2022
- Remarks by President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff at a Reception to Celebrate the Jewish New Year - The White... - October 6th, 2022
- 'Jerusalem of Lithuania' remains witness to the horrors of the Nazi genocide and their willing collaborators - Cleveland Jewish News - October 6th, 2022
- Meet the rabbi who made it possible to live a Jewish life in the UAE - Cleveland Jewish News - October 6th, 2022
- A Daf Yomi Scout: Literary Critic Adam Kirsch Shares Insights from His Seven-Year Study of the Talmud with YU Students - Yu News - September 29th, 2022
- Book Review | Studying Talmud with Beruriah - Moment Magazine - September 29th, 2022
- Why Bats Sleep Upside Down and The Secret of Yom Kippur - aish.com - Aish.com - September 29th, 2022
- 5 things to know about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year - WDJT - September 29th, 2022
- New chapter in 'lost Jewish library mystery' as books returned to Lublin - The First News - September 29th, 2022
- Allegiance To The Monarch - aish.com - Aish.com - September 29th, 2022
- Embracing a Spiritual Discipline of Reparations - Word and Way - September 29th, 2022
- Hidden Meaning in the Talmud's Cures and Fables - aish.com - Aish.com - September 18th, 2022
- Everyone's Buddy - aish.com - Aish.com - September 18th, 2022
- I Never Wanted to Get in the Pool. My Daughter (and the Talmud) Changed That. - Kveller.com - September 18th, 2022
- Abortion and Jewish law - JNS.org - JNS.org - September 18th, 2022
- Jim Crawford is loving Tallaght atmosphere as his side set to face Israel in crunch Euro 2023 play-off... - The Irish Sun - September 18th, 2022
- Becoming Elijah: Prophet of transformation by Daniel C. Matt - Church Times - September 18th, 2022
- Rome, Babylon, and 1 Peter 5:13 Revisited | Nicholas Gulda - Patheos - September 18th, 2022
- Bnot Brak the ultra-Orthodox answer to Real Housewives - Australian Jewish News - September 13th, 2022
- What happens when a heretic and a rabbi walk into a bar? - Jewish Herald-Voice - September 9th, 2022
- Gorbachev was different he had a heart - The Jewish Standard - September 9th, 2022
- Being On The Team - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - September 9th, 2022
- West Temples Rabbi Lader to retire in June 2023 - Cleveland Jewish News - September 9th, 2022
- From Peru to Israel: the Long Journey of the Inca Jews - aldianews.com - September 9th, 2022
- We have faced Amaleks like Putin forever, but with morality we can prevail J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - September 9th, 2022
- Upcoming holidays and events in 2022 - NEWS10 ABC - September 9th, 2022
- The angels who saved my husband's life | Shira Pasternak Be'eri | The Blogs - The Times of Israel - September 9th, 2022
- 'Quiet quitting,' the sudden trend in work, sounds sort of Jewish? (Hear me out.) - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix - September 9th, 2022
- The Choice: A Novel of Love, Faith, and the Talmud - reviewed by Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen J-Wire - J-Wire Jewish Australian News Service - August 30th, 2022
- What If It Were 'Zalman'? - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - August 30th, 2022
- Q & A: The Mantle Of Leadership (Part II) - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - August 30th, 2022
- It is Caught with Two Hands Torah.org - Torah.org - August 30th, 2022
- Anger, Procrastination, and Elul - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - August 30th, 2022
- You say you want a revolution? Try the Bible - Religion News Service - August 30th, 2022
- When was the Old Testament Written? - The Gospel Coalition - August 30th, 2022
- Straus Center Fall 2022 Courses: The Wisdom of Solomon, Rembrandt and AI - Yu News - August 30th, 2022
- Maimonides on the Liberty of the People - Brownstone Institute - August 30th, 2022
- Asking the Clergy: Your faith and recreational marijuana - Newsday - August 30th, 2022
- The Evening Shema: The Perfect Place to Begin - Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters - Lubavitch.com - August 13th, 2022
- 'You don't want to take my money, do you?': Mandarin-speaking rabbi fights antisemitism on Chinas TikTok - Yahoo News - August 13th, 2022
- Tisha B'Av: The Arch of Titus an alternative view - The Times of Israel - August 13th, 2022
- At Oakland's 'Base,' rabbinic couple wants you to make connections J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - August 13th, 2022
- Chazanut and music: tradition and today - Australian Jewish News - August 13th, 2022
- VA'ETCHANAN: In this week's Torah portion, a command to love J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - August 13th, 2022
- Don't Believe in Other Gods Versus God is One - aish.com Ancient Wisdom & Modern Psychology - Aish.com - August 10th, 2022
- Discerning Between Darkness and Light - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - August 10th, 2022
- Activist-writer Elana Dykewomon dies, just as her first play debuts J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - August 10th, 2022
- Reading the Book of Psalms in the Twenty-First Century - Jewish Journal - August 10th, 2022
- Tuesdays primaries offered a glint of hope for Democrats this fall - The Guardian - August 10th, 2022
- Talmud - Jewish Virtual Library - August 1st, 2022
- STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT! - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - July 31st, 2022
- War News And Gefilte Fish - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - July 31st, 2022
- Blinded by Hate | Michael Laitman | The Blogs - The Times of Israel - July 31st, 2022
- Making sense of the sedra: Matot-Masei - Jewish News - July 31st, 2022
- At least 9 cities in the Twin Cities metro targeted with antisemitic, racist flyers - Bring Me The News - July 28th, 2022
- The God Squad: From the mailbag | Opinion | pressrepublican.com - Plattsburgh Press Republican - July 28th, 2022
- Free Online Bible Library | Talmud - BiblicalTraining.org - July 27th, 2022
- Rebuilding Together - Jewish Journal - July 27th, 2022
- Twenty years after Ben and Marla and the Hebrew University bombing - The Times of Israel - July 27th, 2022
- Woven together: Lessons from bringing Israeli rabbis to the U.S. - eJewish Philanthropy - July 27th, 2022
- The God Squad: From the mailbag | Opinion Columns | union-bulletin.com - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin - July 27th, 2022
- Respect Yourself - Respect Others - aish.com The Color of Heaven - Aish.com - July 27th, 2022
- Abortion is a Jewish right and a rabbi says hers was a blessing - Business Insider - July 27th, 2022
- The Flood and Canaan: God's Patience Revealed - Patheos - July 27th, 2022
- Pinchas and the broken vav | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - thejewishchronicle.net - July 27th, 2022
- PJ Library Focuses on Widening its Reach - Publishers Weekly - July 27th, 2022
Comments