CLEANING HOUSE

                It is the custom in Jewish households just before Passover to remove all the chametz, the leaven, from their homes. It means getting rid of any food made of grain and water that is allowed to ferment and rise: bread, cereal, cake, cookies, pasta, and beer. Chametz is the opposite of matzo, the unleavened flat bread eaten by the Israelites the night before their escape from Egypt.

                On the last days before Passover, Jewish families thoroughly clean their homes, especially the kitchen, of every bit of chametz. Every carpet is vacuumed and every floor swept. Every surface is scrubbed clean with boiling water. A separate set of pots, dishes and cutlery are brought out for Passover.

                The point of the Passover “unleavening” is to experience again the “newness” of what God has done: freeing his people from slavery and bringing them into a new land of promise and hope. This act of preparing for Passover invites Jews to remove the “spiritual” leaven from their lives as well as the physical things. Passover calls us to clean away those distractions and let go of our illusions about ourselves and embrace, instead, the spirit of the humble matzo.

                During the last days of Lent we have the opportunity to sweep our houses clean of the unnecessary and distracting things in our lives to better embrace the experience of Easter re-creation in our hearts and homes.