Bedikat Chametz: The Search for Waste
Background:
As the sun sets on the 14th of Nissan, the night before Passover, we take the final steps of ridding our homes of chametz, leavened bread. We clean beyond the kitchen, insuring Passover purity in each aspect of our lives.
This year, the 14th of Nissan is Tuesday night, April 7, which is also the beginning of the once-every-28-year celebration of Birkat HaHammah – Blessing of the Sun. Beginning sundown April 7 and climaxing as the sun rises on April 8, we set aside time to appreciate the wonders of the Sun and all life that comes from its rays - our food, energy and more. As humans, we need this energy, but the divine in us requires that we use it responsibly.
Program:
As you begin the search for leavened bread, say:
Tonight, as we clean our house of our yetzer ha-ra, let us find all forms of waste, from the bloated bread to the sources of wasted energy. Tonight, and all throughout Passover (and maybe longer) we commit to abstaining from all forms of waste and will:
• Turn off lights whenever you don’t need them
• Find incandescent lights and swap them out for energy (and money) saving compact fluorescent lights (CFLs)
• Unplug appliances that aren’t in regular use
• Set the thermostat a few degrees towards the current outdoor temperature
(fill in your own)
• __
• __
• __
To take the next steps look at this do-it-yourself home energy audit.
Click here for a printer friendly version.
As the sun sets on the 14th of Nissan, the night before Passover, we take the final steps of ridding our homes of chametz, leavened bread. We clean beyond the kitchen, insuring Passover purity in each aspect of our lives.
The rabbis say that yeast is like our yetzer ha-ra, our animal inclination, which works insidiously inside us to thwart our yetzer tov, our divine inclination. We need our yetzer ha-ra – without our bodies, without appetite, without desire, we would not be human, we could not do any mitzvot….
Too often, though, we don’t use our yetzer ha-ra in the service of God. Therefore, for one week a year, during Pesach, we take out the visible evidence on the yetzer ha-ra from our lives.
- On Wings of Freedom, Rabbi Richard Levy, p. 5
Too often, though, we don’t use our yetzer ha-ra in the service of God. Therefore, for one week a year, during Pesach, we take out the visible evidence on the yetzer ha-ra from our lives.
- On Wings of Freedom, Rabbi Richard Levy, p. 5
This year, the 14th of Nissan is Tuesday night, April 7, which is also the beginning of the once-every-28-year celebration of Birkat HaHammah – Blessing of the Sun. Beginning sundown April 7 and climaxing as the sun rises on April 8, we set aside time to appreciate the wonders of the Sun and all life that comes from its rays - our food, energy and more. As humans, we need this energy, but the divine in us requires that we use it responsibly.
Program:
As you begin the search for leavened bread, say:
Tonight, as we clean our house of our yetzer ha-ra, let us find all forms of waste, from the bloated bread to the sources of wasted energy. Tonight, and all throughout Passover (and maybe longer) we commit to abstaining from all forms of waste and will:
• Turn off lights whenever you don’t need them
• Find incandescent lights and swap them out for energy (and money) saving compact fluorescent lights (CFLs)
• Unplug appliances that aren’t in regular use
• Set the thermostat a few degrees towards the current outdoor temperature
(fill in your own)
• __
• __
• __
To take the next steps look at this do-it-yourself home energy audit.
Click here for a printer friendly version.
Contributors to this page: Liore and ninabeth - last modified on Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:34 pm.