Let your ego go!
The significance of celebrating Passover during this pandemic
I usually love Passover because, despite all of its moving parts and fastidiousness about deep cleaning and minding what we eat, it is a time that I like to call “ego detox”. Consider the difference between matzah and bread. Aside from the leavening agent which fills it with pockets of air, the recipe for both is pretty much the same. However, on Passover, we only eat matzah and are very strict about eliminating bread or things that rise (chametz) or can be confused for flour. In fact, one of the Four Questions that we train the youngest among us to ask is “Why is it that on every other night we eat chametz AND matzah but tonight we only eat matzah? My answer to this question is simple: That leavening agent is the equivalent to the ego. It’s what we use to puff ourselves up and make ourselves look bigger than we are so that others will “respect” us more — but it lacks authenticity. Matza, on the other hand, which lacks a leavening agent, is referred to as “lechem oni” or poor man’s bread. I would argue that it is not poor in a negative sense but rather in one that, like most Jewish practices and rituals, is meant to help us reconnect with our true selves and to recognise, with humility, the outside help we all need by design. It’s time to change up the way we do things and re-evaluate how we lead our lives. And boy, does this Passover come at a time…
