Chametz- part 1

ד"ה ענין

Why must one check for chametz? The Torah prohibits other things, but we don’t have to check for them.

Everybody knows that the reason why we don’t eat Chametz according to Chazal is because Chametz means turning sour, going bad, becoming conceited and taking more than you deserve. The reason why we eat Matzah is because it teaches us about bitul- letting go, to make one’s self lower or less.

We have to go back to the beginning of creation to truly understand this. Hashem made all of creation by giving it a little bit of existence, everything that it needed. Then nothing existed except for what Hashem gave it when he created it.

But after the creation was created it started to expand, and took too much power for it self, and forgot Hashem created it. Adam ate from the tree, the moon wanted to be more than it was, the trees deviated from the command to make fruit like themselves. This progressed to the thievery and adultery of the flood, idolatry and the ultimate arrogance of the tower of Babel, where man sought to throw Hashem off of His throne. Each was event was another grab of something that didn’t belong to it. All of these occurrences told us one thing. The world had soured, and began to spread, and grab that which did not belong to it. The world became Chametzdig.

Avraham came to the world, and told them, that everything you see is not yours, there is an Owner of the House, and you need to thank Him. So of course he ate Matzos, Lot knew it too. Yitzchak lived with the understanding that all of the world, he had left on behind on the Mizbeach. Yaakov taught this to his sons, he said, “I am small from all of the goodness which Hashem has given me. Yosef of course refused to look at anything which Hashem hadn’t granted him. Then Mitzraim swallowed us up. Full of idolatry and cultic black magic, trying to take Hashem’s kingdom away from Him, and adultery, again taking what isn’t given to the person

But then on Pesach, Hashem showed the world, that it all was his again, every detail, therefore He performed ten plagues, to show how everything was His again. Therefore, on Pesach we were commanded only to eat Matzah, so that we shouldn’t take anymore that what Hashem gave us, because even one hair’s breadth of what isn’t ours is Chametz.

It is for this reason that we check for Chametz to make sure, that we haven’t taken what isn’t ours. It’s so hard because, in truth there are an infinite amount of levels of a person’s life to be checked through. Therefore, we need to check in all of the nooks and crannies of our house, and of our lives. Chazal say be “very, very low of spirit.” Why very very?

Based on this idea, can understand why we must burn the Chametz, why the amount is to the extent that your hand reaches and why we use a candle and not a torch. Even, if you are humble, there is always the possibility that there can be some amount of self aggrandizement, as a result of your humility. This is why we burn the Chametz, because there is no honor in burning it, it’s unceremonialy dumped into the fire, without fanfare.

The Halacha gives us a limit to how much a person must check. The amount is wherever your hand can reach. But wherever your hand can’t reach or you don’t bring Chametz in there, you don’t have to check, because you haven’t taken any of Hashem’s strength for yourself in that area, you have remained with what Hashem gave you there. It’s just the way you found it it’s Matzah.

As well, the Halacha says we only use a candle, and not a torch. A torch would destroy it totally. Hashem just wants us to let go of what He hasn’t given us.