Without Policemen
R' Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev once was walking with his shammash on erev Pesach in the early afternoon. The Rebbe met a gentile, a customs smuggler, and asked him:
"Do you have any contraband from the other side of the border?"
"Certainly, come with me. I have plenty at home," answered the smuggler.
Afterward he met a Jew and innocently asked:
"Do you have any chometz at home, perhaps?"
"Now?" stammered the amazed Jew. "Rebbe, it is already erev Pesach after noon!"
R' Levi Yitzchok continued walking and met another Jew, and asked him the same question.
"Rebbe! Are you making fun of me, or are you suspicious of kosher Jews? The time to burn and be mevatel chometz already passed a long time ago!"
R' Levi Yitzchok raised his head Heavenward and exclaimed:
"Ribono shel olam! Look down from Your holy abode and see to what extent your Jewish people embrace the Torah's mitzvos and are careful to fulfill them. The Russian Czar is a powerful king, with many judges and policemen, and tremendous armies. The Czar has deployed army corps throughout the country and especially in all border cities. All of these forces are there to ensure that the laws are observed, and they supervise the borders to prevent smuggling. Nevertheless, there are many who openly disobey his laws.
"And You, Ribono shel olam, just wrote in Your Torah, "And chometz shall not be seen." You did not appoint police, taskmasters, or armies, yet on erev Pesach not even a crumb of chometz can be found in a Jewish house after midday!"
Real and Homiletic Chometz
"This is a terrible predicament!" an elderly and sagacious chossid once remarked. "As long as Pharaoh was Pharaoh and the Egyptians were Egyptians, they were drowned in Yam Suf, and could be done away with once and for all. But now the Zohar has revealed to us that Pharaoh symbolizes the yetzer hora and the Egyptians are its helpers, we suddenly cannot get rid of them!"
Unnecessary Search . . .
R' Yisroel of Tchortkov often wondered: A man searches for each crumb of chometz. He looks in all the crevices and cracks for fear that even something vaguely resembling chometz may remain. Unfortunately, this very same man forgets to destroy the "leavened dough" (yetzer hora) within himself, his spiritual refuse, which is much more simple to locate.
The Difference Between Chometz and Matzo
Both bread and matzo have similar nutritional value. Their main ingredients are just flour and water. It is only the addition of yeast to bread which makes it different from matzo. Yeast, although inedible, nevertheless forms the bread, giving it its own particular shape and taste, and chemically leavening the dough until it attains its typical inflated size. Bread can now even fool the physical senses of taste and sight into believing that it is something else altogether.
Therefore, before searching for chometz, a person must destroy his own "leavened dough," his yetzer hora. The numerical value of chometz (ches, mem, tzaddi—138) is greater than the numerical value of matzo (mem, tzaddi, hey—135) by three. This hints at a man's three bad character traits: jealousy, desire, and lust for honor, that ferment and inflate a man, bringing him to his grave prematurely.
Within His Hand's Reach
Once R' Eizel, the Rebbe of Slonim, saw a rich but miserly Jew from his town standing in front of his house on erev Pesach and meticulously shaking out the pockets of his clothing so that, cholila, not a crumb of chometz would remain inside them.
R' Eizel told him: Reb Yid, according to the halocho you are not obligated to check your pockets. The Shulchan Oruch only obligates one to check "up to where one's hand reaches," and your hand only gets close to your pocket. It never dips in to take out tzedoko money.
Understanding the Poor
R' Chaim Ozer Grodzensky of Vilna worked and influenced others to help the community. In his endeavors he was especially concerned for the poor, and tried his best to aid them. Once on a seder night, someone from the shul came over to R' Chaim and told him that he had just arrived in town that day and lacked the bare necessities for Pesach. R' Chaim Ozer pretended to be listening to a halachic shailah, and then loudly pronounced "It is treif, all that you prepared is treif!"
Those assembled in the shul who heard, thought that R' Chaim had just ruled all this Jew's preparations for Pesach to be treif. They quickly rushed to bring him all his Yom Tov needs.
Eat and Keep Watch!
In Kotsk, the Rebbe would train his chassidim to strengthen their character and be strong-willed. A person with a weak personality, one who was inconsistent and constantly changed his mind, would be laughed at in Kotsk.
Due to this admiration of strong character, R' Menachem Mendel, the Kotsker Rebbe, would praise even Pharaoh's personality, despite his having constantly tortured and oppressed the Jews. The Rebbe would say: "Pharaoh was really strong! Another king who suffered even a small part of the plagues that Egypt was afflicted with, would immediately scream and cry out: Hashem is the ruler of the universe and his judgments are all just! But Pharaoh was a mighty person. Although HaKodosh Boruch Hu brought upon him plague after plague he still held his own."
According to this school of thought, the Rebbe explained the meaning of chometz and matzo. In the mitzvah of, "You shall eat matzos for seven days, and you shall not eat chometz." The Torah was stringent about chometz during Pesach more than any other forbidden food. Not only is one punished by koreis for eating it, but we were also warned not to see it or let it be found it in our homes. And when the Torah commanded "And you shall guard the matzos"—chazal commanded us to be careful that the matzos do not become chometz.
If eating chometz is such a severe sin, would it not be proper for chazal to distance us from eating matzos except when we are commanded to, as a precaution and safeguard against any slight chashash of chometz?
This comes to teach us that a person eating something that cannot by nature ever become chometz has not exerted himself in any way. The main spiritual aim here is that man should eat everything that is permitted for him, and with a strong and decided will he should simultaneously guard himself from all issurim and from any slight doubt of sinning.
No Remembrance of the Silver
R' Meir of Premislan was once asked: We prepare a seder on Pesach night. We place morror on the table as a remembrance of our servitude, so why do we not put some silver on the table as a remembrance of the silver that we took as booty from Egypt?
R' Meir answered: We put morror on the table and not silver, since the morror has remained as a remembrance for us today, too—we still have very bitter lives. However, the silver that we took out of Egypt has not remained with us.
And You Shall Guard Your Souls Well
During the last year of R' Chaim Tsanzer's life, the doctors warned him not to eat morror at the seder. Such a sharp food could possibly endanger his life. The Rebbe ignored his doctors' advice, and ordered that morror be placed as usual on the seder table. His friends pleaded with him to forgo eating the morror and so safeguard his health. The Rebbe, however, did not yield. The morror must be put on the table as usual. All were terrified of what might happen after the Rebbe ate the morror.
The Rebbe started the seder, and when he reached the mitzvah of eating morror he held it in his hands and began the brocho, "Who sanctified us with His mitzvos . . ."
Everyone's heart stopped beating. The fear was great. The Rebbe, however, finished the brocho, "And commanded us to fulfill the mitzvas aseh of `And you shall guard your souls well.'" He then replaced the morror on the table!
The Difference Between A Chochom And A Rosho
Each person's reaction on seeing a beautiful picture is different. A novice in art will ask simply, `What is it?' One who is more expert is amazed with the general beauty of the picture and asks about certain details concerning it. A painter himself will be concerned about each and every detail of the picture.
This can be compared to the reaction of people to Torah and mitzvos. The wise person, who already believes in the Torah and tries to comprehend it and fulfill its mitzvos, interests himself in all the details: "What are these witnesses, statues, and judgments?" Such questions demonstrate his high regard for the mitzvos, which leads him to ask details about them.
But the rosho simply asks: "Why are you doing this Divine service?" We infer from his question he does not at all realize the preciousness and beauty of the mitzvos.
The Vilna Gaon, with his deep penetrating powers of understanding, clarified the difference between a rosho and a chochom based on the posuk, "And I saw that there is an advantage to wisdom over foolishness, as the advantage of light over darkness" (Koheles 2:13).
He explained: "The advantage to wisdom over foolishness"—the advantage of the chochom's question over that of the rosho —is as "the advantage of light over darkness."
In the story of the creation of light the name Elokim is mentioned— "And Elokim called the light Day." With the creation of darkness, however, the Torah writes, "And the darkness He called Night," without mentioning the Holy Name.
Here lies the real difference between the question of the chochom and that of the rosho. The chochom mentions the Divine name —"That Hashem Elokim commanded you"—but the rosho merely asks —"What is this service to you?"—without mentioning Hashem's name.
A Rosho Does Not Have Teeth
Here is an interesting gematria. The value of "rosho" (resh, shin, ayin) amounts to 570, while "shinov" ("his teeth")— (shin, nun, yod, vov) amounts to 366. The Haggadah says "You should set his teeth on edge," so let us subtract the amount of shinov (366) from Rosho (570), and the result is 204, which is the numerical value of tzaddik (tzaddi, daled, yod, kuf)!
You ("At") Open For Him
The Boruch She'omar is amazed at the use of "at" for "you," the feminine form, whereas the masculine should be used, since a father is being addressed.
This comes to teach us, he answers, that we should not think of dismissing the son "who does not know how to ask" with a short answer, such as "because of this, Hashem did [miracles] for me when I left Egypt." From such an answer, he cannot possibly understand what happened to us in Egypt. On the contrary, such a son should be taught in detail all that happened to us, without leaving anything out. The way of answering this type of son is hinted at in the word at— spelled Alef Tov, meaning to teach him from Alef to Tov.
In The Beginning Our Fathers Were Idol Worshipers
Rav Eliyahu Dessler, the author of Michtav MeEliahu, is puzzled by the mention of our fathers' idol worship. After all, Avrohom Ovinu severed himself from his origins and started an entirely new lifestyle. If so, why on the seder night do we once again relate our roots in idolatry?
This comes, he says, to teach us a lesson about the firm resolution of Avrohom, who rebelled against his father, his household, his entire family, and the accepted belief of the whole world. Avrohom alone fought for the recognition of monotheism.
We all realize how difficult it is to swim against the current, even in an environment where there is only minor opposition to our view. Certainly for someone who was alone, in an environment that completely opposed his view, great difficulties were confronted. This shows us the strength of character needed by Avrohom in order to stand against the entrenched and venerable culture of idolatry.
This is nothing less than absolute stubbornness directed in a positive direction. One cannot act in such a way unless he has made an immutable decision not to yield under any circumstances. Only if there is absolutely no leeway allowed for change are we safe from the yetzer hora.
In one's spiritual world any level attained becomes a palpable reality, as chazal say: "The ashes of Yitzchok are piled up before Me on the altar." For us also, the tiny spark hidden in each Jew's heart that emanates from the covenant and promise that "his seed will not be destroyed" stems from the firm resolution of Avrohom Ovinu, whose continuation in future generations was promised by this covenant.
