Nearly every rabbi worth his sermon has spoken from the pulpit about emotional chametz. Emotional chametz may be as small as a crumb or as large as a three-tiered wedding cake. It might keep you up all night or crumble like a dream on the verge of waking. Regardless of the degree of difficulty, Jews are encouraged to examine and expunge their psychological baggage and spiritual defeats with the same detective-like temerity utilized to search for actual leaven each Passover.
Judaism is big on cleaning not only plates but slates. We come into the world innocent and wide- eyed. Inevitably, time and circumstance can color our positive approach. Although we have free choice, sometimes the baggage outweighs our best efforts. So we huff and puff and blow our chametz to pieces. Ah, how fresh this moment appears! Of course we’ll feel this way tomorrow! Then, lo and behold, some of us feel exactly the same — or even worse — the next day because we failed the test of emotional chametz and spiritual good riddance.
There’s always Yom Kippur, that other powerful clearing house of slates and sins. And each Shabbat is a chance to experience life anew. These intervals are holy holidays. But how to we keep the renewal fresh in real time?
It is traditional for Jews to sell or give away their chametz to non-Jews before the start of Passover. But in our virtual emotional chametz universe, who receives our messes and regrets? To whom do we make the bill of sale? We really have to remove that last speck of dirt in our heart and in our actions ourselves. Otherwise, the urge to fling the final vestige of emotional chametz at an undeserving person might take hold! The goal is to allow unresolved issues no longer to control our lives, let alone imperil someone else’s well being.
Imagine, it’s now the conclusion of Passover, not the week before. We have relived the Exodus in our own time. Spring flowers waft through the open window. Satisfied smiles light the way home. Even so, come morning, don’t be surprised if a bit of psychological chametz pops up in a mental corner. We can continue to hope that remembering the chains of our humiliation, duly unbound on Passover, might convince us to pursue freedom a little longer and harder in the year to come.
Remember, next Thursday night the chametz search begins: Good luck! And Happy Passover!
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
