Around my house, I am known as an expert “finder.” Lost keys? I saw them on the kitchen counter. Missing puzzle piece? Under the bed, behind the discarded treasures from the Purim carnival! I also am a bit compulsive when it comes to crumbs. The handheld vacuum is my favorite toy in our house. Between two cats and two children, it gets used multiple times a day. I love the feeling of walking into a clean room, especially when that means not stepping on leftovers from breakfast on the floor!
Perhaps this is why I have always enjoyed prepping for Pesach each year. There is something quite therapeutic in the ritual of Bedikat Chametz, checking for chametz (products containing leavened grain) before the first seder each year.
Traditionally, on the night before the first seder, Jews will search for chametz by candlelight, using a feather to sweep crumbs into a wooden spoon. The candle would light the dark corners of the house, where crumbs tend to lurk.
It is possible to modernize bedikat chametz and make it more family-friendly, so even the youngest members of your family can get in the Passover spirit. Grab a few flashlights and turn out the lights! Have your family search for crumbs—you can even hide a few crumbs in advance—and enjoy a fun game together.
On a deeper level, as you begin to prep for Passover meals and festive get-togethers with family and friends, keep in mind Rabbi Moshe Isserles’s (16th century Poland) advisement that one should also search his pockets for chametz. Kabbalist Isaiah Horowitz later added that checking for chametz should be an internal audit, a checking of one’s soul for undesirable “crumbs.”
What could you stand to toss from your life this spring? This Pesach, I am committing to being more mindful and less distracted by modern gadgets. I find it harder and harder to not jump for my phone when I hear the email sound “ding!” or, in a moment of quiet, not to reach for the computer and search for the latest news article. On this holiday of freedom, I am choosing to liberate myself from the ties of technology (some of the time!) and not feel bound to the rhythm of my iPhone. I will commit to enjoying a lazy afternoon with my family, leaving my phone far from the action of an imaginative tea party or an all-consuming fort building session. Imagine how liberating it would be to simply sit in silence and stare out the window at the dancing tree branches.
What will you commit to tossing this spring? Happy Passover!
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