House of Love and Prayer
San Francisco, 5733.

BEDIKAS CHOMETZ

    How can a human being who is finite reach the infinite light which
flows with no reason, no slavery. The truth is we cannot reach for it.
It is a gift from Heaven, a holy gift which doesn't depend on anything.
This light is shining down, and we must make little vessels for this
light.

What is the smallest, sweetest little vessel we can make in preparation
for receiving this light? It is to clean the house a little bit. On Passover
you must have a house, in order to clean all the bread from the house.
Just like I cannot really fulfill Hanuka unless I have a house, I cannot
prepare for Pesach unless I have a house. I must have a house and I must
clean that house, which on a higher level means I must have a place in
the world, and that place has to be clean. The great miracle is that the
night before Pesach G-d gives each person a place in the world in order
to fulfill Pesach. G-d always helps you to do what you have to do. He not
only gives the lights, G-d helps you to get the vessels.

Gemara Pesachim begins "Ohr l'Arba assur", the light of the 14th, the
night before Pesach. A light is shining giving me a place in the world, and
then I begin searching, cleaning my little place to the best of my ability
G-d wants you to clean as far your hand can reach, and wherever you
cannot reach, G-d will clean for you. You have to search for Chometz with
a candle wherever you can, and then the next morning you have to announce,
"Any bread left in my posession is non-existent for me." That is "mevatl
belibo", annihilating the bread in your heart. The holy Karliner asked, How
are you annihilating bread, which is a symbol of all the evil in the world?"
He says "belibo" - with a little bit of heart. The world translates this to
mean, "annihilate" it in your heart, but the Karliner translates it as "with
a little bit of heart", a bissel hartz. G-d just asks us for a little place and
a little bit of heart.

          Why are we bodake chometz with a candle? Sunlight can show you
what is going on in a big room, but when it come to a little corner, only a
candle will do. A candle has something very holy about it that it can shine
into a little dark place. The Gemara says, man is called G-d's candle - "Ner
haShem nishamas adam". Torah is called "ner b'yadkha", a candle in your
hand. G-d is saying to us, "if you watch over my candle, the Torah, I'll watch
over your candle, your soul. If you abandon my candle, has v'shalom, I'm
abandoning yours." You see, the holiness of Torah is that it can shine into
the deepest corner of the soul.

      Before Pesach, before I become free, I always think the whole world is
rotten to the core, but I am good. The night before Pesach a great light is
shining which the Bais Yaakov says is the light by which I find my place.
Reb Nachman says it is very simple. The great light which is shining is
that I know I have all the evil in my own house. It is nobody else'a fault.
It is my own fault. Rav Kook says there is no freedom in the world because
everyone likes to look for it in someone else's house. If the world would
learn that first they have to look for evil in their own home ... OY!



REB LEVI YITZHOK STORY

One Eruv Pesach Reb Levi Yizhak of Berditchev told the
Hasidim to go fetch him some German merchandise. Now
At the time it was illegal to own German merchandise as
some Russians had a monopoly on the market; and G-d forbid,
you get caught, you would go to Siberia for it. The Hasidim were
amazed at their Rebbe's request, but the Rebbe's command is
the Rebbe's command, so off they went. They came back with
much German merchandise because they had found it everywhere.

Then Reb Levi Yitzhok told them to go out and bring back
some bread. The Hasim were shocked, eruv Pesach bread?
But he said, "Don't ask me questions, I need it very badly."
So they wnet, and nowhere in Berdichev, and in those
days the people were all Yidden, was any bread to be found.
So they came back to Reb Levi Yitzhok empty handed. So
Reb Levi Yitzhak turned to the G-d and said, "Ribbono Shel
Olam! See how much we love You. Our Tsar has police
on every corner and he can't even the people from getting
German merchandise. On the other hand, You, Master of
the World have no police, and yet no Jew will ever disobey You."


BEDIKAS HUMETZ STORY

In the middle of Seder, the Holy Yehoshuas Yakov, was interrupted
by a poor widow who had come to see him with a tale of utter woe.
"Rebbe, we had nothing to eat the entire year. But we scrape
and save in honor of Pesach. Today I bought ourselves a new pot and a
chicken. I made enough soup to feed my eleven children
for the entire Yom Tov. But sadly, sadly enough, my youngest son
was playing in the street today and in the middle of our Seder
dropped a tiny kernel of corn into the boiling pot of soup.
Rabbi, what can I feed my children all Pesach?"
Now all the poskim, authorities on halakha, hold that not only
is the soup forbidden, you have to destroy the pot also,
since everyone knows that the tiniest crumb of chumetz can never 
be nullified. But, just that afternoon, the Rabbi was learning
a ruling by the Hai Gaon, which said that in case of need, one part
chumetz might be nullified in sixty. So the Rav
said, "Go, eat the soup and save a little for me, also."
That night the Rav had a dream where Reb
Hai Gaon told him, "How did you know? I knew that my opinion
would be rejected by the majority of the authorities
that would follow me. But I only intended my ruling
to apply to this one poor woman when I issued it
six hundred years ago. I wrote it only for her."

