Pesach - Rebirth
Pesach is a time of rebirth, the springtime when the trees begin blossoming, the eggs begin to hatch. and the animals are born. We too are reborn as a people. Chazal tell us that chametz represents the Yetzer Hara. (Bread is inflated wheat. The Yetzer Hara, makes havley olam hazeh look inflated, better than they truly are, in order to tempt us to indulge in them). Before we can be reborn and recreate ourselves, we must rid ourselves of our entire former makeup, which has been saturated by the Yetzer Hara.
This is alluded to by the minhag to take ten pieces of chametz, hide them, search for them, find them, and burn them. This process symbolises the internal work we are doing, namely searching within ourselves - in every nook and cranny - to find the various forms of Yetzer Hara that have infected us, removing them and burning them. (As a person discovers and burns his chametz, he should simultaneously intend to find and eradicate the Yetzer Hara within him. He should Daven for si’ata diShmaya in completing this important avodah, as stated in the tefillah printed in Machzorim following kol chamira).
As we have previously explained, a complete eternity comprises ten components. This is true of everything in the world, physical or spiritual.
Prior to Leil Haseder, we have searched for, found, and entirely burned, the ten parts of the Yetzer Hara. Now we are ready for our rebirth as new people. The center of the majestic seder table is certainly the ka’arah, the seder plate holding six items (the zeroa, beitza, maror, charoses, karpas, and chazeres). Beneath it we store the three matzos, representing Kohen, Levi and Yisrael. The six components on top, the three matzos below, and the seder plate itself make up ten components. This represents the ten components of the new person that is born on this night. Each component of the ka’arah as well as each of the four cups of wine represent a special component of a person’s ruchniyus makeup.
