Far-Reaching Work
Chometz symbolizes kelipa. That is why we keep our distance from even the tiniest amount of chometz, just as a person takes every possible precaution to protect himself from robbers who wish to take his life.
While getting rid of all the chometz, we should have in mind our desire that just as we are scrubbing and scouring away even the minutest amount of chometz, HaShem should destroy every last bit of the yetzer hara from the world. We are certain that HaShem, Who sees all the work the Yidden invest in cleaning for Pesach, will do away with the kelipa and the golus we are in.
All the work we do for Pesach must be carried out with love and joy, with no room for anger and arguments. And the money with which we buy the Yom-Tov necessities should be honestly earned. Otherwise, one would be feeding the kelipa with kedusha.
(ספר קב הישר פרק פ"ט)
The Rebbe Rashab writes in a maamar: The main focus of Pesach is each individual’s personal exodus from bondage to freedom. The preparation for this is biur chometz – investing every effort in checking all holes or cracks, and taking every precaution when baking matza. All this is done out of vigilant concern for one’s neshama, so that even the minutest amount of chometz should not be seen or found, and so that the matza will be properly prepared.
(סה”מ אעת”ר ע’ סח)
One year, before bedikas chometz, the Frierdiker Rebbe said, “One must check for chometz in ruchniyus, too, although the physical checking is much easier.” He added, “In the year תקכ”ה (1765) the Alter Rebbe came home from Mezritch before Pesach. On the day of bedikas chometz he did not eat, as he was completely occupied with his preparations for the checking, making sure to implement all the kavanos he had learned in Mezritch. That year, bedikas chometz took him the entire night, and he only owned one room!”
(ספר השיחות תרח"צ ע' 265)
Toiling for a Mitzva
After saying the Yehi ratzon following tekias shofar, Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev once cried out to HaShem, “Sweet and compassionate Father! If the malochim that were created from my קשר”ק (יעהקקת, בריםשש, ועהררת, and יעהקקת) are weak, then let them be replaced by the holy and healthy malochim created by the hard work of Yidden before Pesach – by their ראצןקק, אבעןשש, ייבעןרר, and שר'ןקק – their scratching, scraping, scrubbing and kashering.”
(לקוטי דיבורים ע' 260)
In the home of Reb Osher of Stolin, so much effort was expended on properly cleaning out the chometz from the cracks in the tabletops that the chassidim suggested to their Rebbe that it would be easier to get new tables.
The tzaddik responded, “If I buy new tables, with what will Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev defend the Yidden?”
(דברי אהרן ע’ לו)
The effort and energy one expends while preparing for Pesach can destroy evil malochim and provide a person with tikkun. One should therefore make that effort, and HaShem, in His great mercy, will accept the good intentions of the Yidden and bring the geula. This is part of the purification one must undertake before Yom-Tov in order to be able to receive its kedusha.
(ספר קב הישר פרק צ')
At the beginning of each year, the Frierdiker Rebbe, then the menahel of Tomchei Temimim, would present a list – with comments – of all the new talmidim to his father, the Rebbe Rashab. One year, upon receiving the list, the Rebbe took note of the name of a bochur about whom it was written that although he was learned, a veritable lamdan, he had coarse middos and his features lacked a certain refinement. After some thought, the Rebbe agreed to accept him, and added that he would have to be worked on.
As soon as the list was approved, the Frierdiker Rebbe set up a particularly demanding seder for this bochur. Soon after Rosh Chodesh Adar he received a letter from the Rebbe Rashab, who was then abroad, instructing him to entrust this bochur with all the hard work needed for preparing the shemura matza, and asking for a report as to how he performed his tasks.
For two weeks, the talmid was kept busy with the physically taxing work of sorting the wheat, setting up the hand-mill, and grinding the wheat into flour. When the time came for baking, he was again assigned the heaviest work. On erev Pesach, he was awake most of the night, having been entrusted with doing bedikas chometz in the shul and the yeshiva building. The next morning he was up early to kasher the oven for the last batch of matzos.
When the preparations for Pesach were finally completed, and the hardworking bochurim went to toivel in the mikve and dress for Yom-Tov, the Frierdiker Rebbe instructed this bochur to learn a certain maamar of the Alter Rebbe. The bochur was to come to the Frierdiker Rebbe the next morning at seven o’clock, to review the maamar. On Pesach night he still had no rest, for he had to help serve the talmidim who conducted their Seder together in the large beis medrash.
Nevertheless, the following morning he came to the Frierdiker Rebbe, having mastered the maamar thoroughly. It was now perfectly clear just how much the study of Chassidus mattered to him. The Frierdiker Rebbe reported all that had happened to the Rebbe Rashab, and on Acharon shel Pesach, when the Rebbe Rashab joined the bochurim at their seuda, he commented to his son, “Just look how powerful is the sweat of a mitzva! Look how he has acquired different features; instead of coarseness (grobkeit), he now has the face of a mensch.”
(לקוטי דיבורים ח"א ע' 244)
Consider
Is the elimination of chometz primarily a physical activity, or a spiritual one?
How can the physical exertion for a mitzvah change the person spiritually?
