Letting Go for Passover
A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM OUR SPIRITUAL LEADER
Dear Wonderful Temple B'nai Emet Family,
As Passover approaches, I would like to take one more opportunity to remind us all that whatever we were able to do or not do to prepare for the holiday, our tradition gives us multiple ways to let go and enjoy ourselves. Some of us did a bunch to prepare. For others, a whole host of life circumstances may have made preparation too difficult, whether our physical health, our living situations, or sheer emotional overwhelm. And that's okay.
With that in mind, I strongly encourage everyone to engage in the home rituals that help us say goodbye to chametz (leavened gluten or oat products) no matter how much we have or have not done to clean or get dishes ready or the like.
It starts with the symbolic search for chametz tonight. Ideally, this is designed for when it is officially dark (7:41 pm or later), but really, whatever time works to help you let go on the eve before Passover should be your guide.
You can usually find this in a Haggadah, but the Rabbinical Assembly, which is the guiding authority for Conservative Judaism in America, has an easy-to-follow page for this:
Click here for a "Search for Chametz" Ritual Guide
This guide gives the ritual itself, as well as an understanding of the most traditional items to use for the search. (Don't worry if you don't have these items--it is perfectly okay to use whatever works, like a bag and a cell phone light!) The basic idea is that a small number (often 10, but it doesn't have to be) of bread crumbs or other chameitz are distributed to easily accessible places in the living space, so that the person conducting the search can find them fulfill the special blessing one recites at the beginning of the search.
I think it is very telling and helpful that our Sages have us make the blessing for this symbolic search, not for any real work cleaning our house. That makes it more possible for everyone. Of course, if you worked at cleaning, by all means you can and should view the blessing and search as a conclusion to your efforts. And if cleaning or other prep just wasn't in the cards, your care of our tradition and desire to do these rituals still entitles you to say the blessing with a full heart and with self-love for whatever else proved a challenge for you.
The ritual formula we say after the search is over (most importantly in a language we understand) is especially important and helpful. It helps us essentially let go of whatever leaven we didn't get to or figure out--we disown such unknown chameitz. And we are encouraged to burn the searched-for chameitz the following morning, saying a similar formula goodbye, this time to all chameitz, known or unknown, until Pesach/Passover is over. (You do not have to actually burn your leaven products--throwing them away is fine and may be necessary if you do have a safe way to burn them.)
These are beautiful rituals to help us move on from a place of preparation to the oncoming celebration. By mid-to-late morning, we look forward to the Seder table, to prayers of joy, to talk of freedom and hope, and to being in all of this together.
With love and hope,
Michael Feldman
PS: I plan to be in touch (much more briefly!) tomorrow afternoon with a short inspiration for our upcoming services, 10:00 am, Thursday morning. See the attached Passover Guide and the below recording of last Sunday's lesson (explained in the below email) for more.
Happy passover "almost"
We’re so happy to share the Jewish Federation of the Greater San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys'
As the holiday approaches, we hope these ideas and resources help make your seder and the days of Passover feel even more meaningful, joyful, and connected.
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