What is holding you back?

I know that most of us have been cleaning our houses, getting ready for Passover.  We’ve bought the matzahs and have put away all the leven goods, the chametz. Thursday night, April 14^th, we search by candle light in all the nooks and crannies for any of chametz we might have left behind.  I call it my search and destroy mission. The next day I destroy it completely. Have you ever thought of this ritual’s deeper meaning?

According to Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the search of chametz teaches us a valuable lesson in life.  “We came out of Egypt in the month of Nisan, in the spring.  Everything is becoming free, every flower, every blade of grass; colors are returning to the world as the leaves and the flowers come out from hiding, reminding us that they can’t be suppressed forever.  There’s so much freedom in the air, so much sweetness.  What keeps us from being free sometimes is a very small thing.  Chametz is assur b’mashehu-it’s forbidden for us to have even the smallest amount of it in our possession, because sometimes one crumb can destroy your life.

“You know friends, most married couples that get divorced do it not because of a major event, but because of small events-tiny crumbs.  As Pesach comes we’re getting rid of all those tiny crumbs.  Between redemption and slaver is a mashehu, a crumb, a speck.  Between being a good father and a good mother, and not being proper parents is just a mashehu, something so tiny.  Real redemption comes when we walk around with a candle and find this tiny trait that’s holding us back from being what we could be, this little thing that’s in essence ruining us-when we find it and burn it.”  (from the Carlebach Haggadah)

What is that mashehu that’s holding you back from being the type of husband or wife you want to be?  What is that mashehu that’s holding you back from being the type of parent or grandparent you want to be?  What is that mashehu that’s holding you back from being the type of human being you want to be?  What is that mashehu that’s holding you back from becoming the type of Jew you want to be?  Identify it.  Burn it, destroy it, and remove it from this world!  Then you will be able enjoy the true blessing of freedom and redemption that Passover promises.

Shabbat Shalom and Hag Samayakh