Pesach Cleaning

A little thought on Pesach, the holiday of our freedom, which is coming up shortly, and the Passover cleaning that I at least dread starting!

Why do we use diamonds on engagement and wedding bands? There is the well known idea that marriage is to “polish your diamond” and that a marriage should be unbreakable, symbolic of the fact that nothing can cut a diamond besides another diamond. I would like to posit another idea: diamonds are judged not only by their size, but also by their clarity. The best diamond is one that has no opaqueness and no blemishes. When you look at such a diamond, the beauty is in the tremendous dazzle of the clear white reflecting in so many colors around the room.

This is our souls. The Gemara says that Sara and Esther were among the most beautiful women who lived, because the beauty and purity of their souls shone through their bodies – and we see this in terms of the radiant faces of tzaddikim as well. However, sin causes the soul to be increasingly opaque and concealed within our bodies. The more blemishes and opaqueness, the less the radiance of the soul can shine through the gray and black muck. The white purity of our inner diamond can be so obscured that, much like a raw diamond, you might mistake it for a sooty rock and never dream that it is capable of being so exquisitely beautiful!

In the secular world, shmutz is commonplace, accepted, and everywhere. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, Maxim, advertising, the girls that cheer for every sports team – you name it. The hard core stuff is just as numerous, a centimeter below the surface. A secular person might even laugh and say: What’s the big deal?

But in a Torah home, this has no place. Kedushah and impurity simply don’t mix – it’s like oil and water. We are supposed to be a light unto the nations, and commanded by Hashem to be an am kadosh – a holy nation. There can be no brachah and hatzlachah in a house, and certainly no shalom bayis, without kedushah. It’s not punishment; it’s simple spiritual consequences.

We have to look deep into our own souls and clean not only our physical spaces of chametz – of the ego and shmutz that we think is so acceptable most of the time – but also our spiritual “spaces.” We need to dust ourselves off, even more than the cabinets! The energy of the month of Nissan which is coming up shortly is all about breaking free of boundaries, of making gigantic spiritual leaps – symbolized by the deer, which is the symbol of the month.

Right now, we are in Mitzrayim – in a closed, tight space. The situation is Eretz Yisrael seems to be getting tighter by the day, especially in light of the various attacks that have happened in recent weeks (reported by Mystical Paths and other blogs). There is no “natural” solution to this problem, and I think it is no coincidence that these events are happening now, as opposed to during a different time of the calendar.

We just celebrated Purim, which took place in what is now modern day Iran. Once again, a powerful Iranian/Persian evil man is threatening to eradicate the Jews, and is funding and training all the terrorist activities in Gaza/West Bank/Lebanon.

Hopefully, we just “cleaned up” our physical act through the mitzvot of Purim – sanctifying our money through giving charity, our food by having the Purim seudah, and our mitzvot bein adam l’chaveiro – between us and our fellow Jews – by exchanging gifts. Now, we need to clean up our spiritual act in preparation for Passover. The diamond is there – but it is so covered in rock that even the diamond has forgotten its essence. Bezrat Hashem, by doing teshuva and living in a way that keeps our diamond sparkling, we can merit the yeshua - tremendous, miraculous salvation, that we so desperately need – both in the land of Israel, and for the people of Israel.