SIGNIFICANCE OF MATZAH

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well and enjoying Pesach.

Mazal Tov to Ariel Bassin whose birthday is tonight. I hope that you are enjoying your trip to California Ariel and that you are having a nice Pesach. It was good to see you in California BH. Wishing you a year of continued happiness and success in both the material and spiritual.

Mazal Tov to Aaron Davidoff whose birthday is a day later. I hope all going well with you. Keep us in touch with your music when you can. Wishing you a year of much success and happiness Aaron.

I would like to welcome to our Family Group, Adrian Sacks, who is a first cousin from my mother's side. As mentioned last week, we had his daughter Bronwyn and her Family over for Shabbos, and as a result I made contact with Adrian again after many years (could even be decades). Adrian qualified as a dentist in SA and has been living in Melbourne for many years.

Welcome Ade. So nice to be in touch again! Whenever a new member joins I have this wish to have a Family tree so that we can introduce a new member to everyone. How about it Batsheva or Kevin, or any other volunteers!?

I saw an article on the SIGNIFICANCE OF MATZAH, from the Rebbe, and I would like to share some of the points (Likutei Sichos Vol 1 p129 and Vol 7 p276)

• Chametz (leavened bread) rises and becomes bloated, and this symbolizes self-inflated egotism and pride. Matzah, which remains flat and unpretentious, reflects selfless humility. This concept is also reflected in Torah's description of matzah as 'poor man's bread'. A poor man is humble and free of arrogance.
• The theme of Pesach is to undergo a personal exodus to freedom from Egypt by transcending our individual limits. The Zohar associates matzah with the quality of self-transcendence, calling it the 'bread of Faith'.
• Hashem gave us the Mitzvah to eat matzah on Pesach, to help us internalize the experience of the above 2 points, and this becomes part of our flesh and blood. Ie it becomes internalized.
• The Hebrew letters of chametz and matzah are almost identical. Each has 3 letters, 2 of which are the same. The third letters are slightly different (ie one has a chet - chametz, and matzah has a heh. Both these letters have the shape of 3 walls. In the case of the ches of chametz, the letter is enclosed on all 3 sides, signifying imprisonment. The heh of matzah however, has a little opening at the top of one of it's walls. This escape hatch refers to teshuvah, the ever- open opportunity to return to Hashem.

Practically this means that a chametz character will be opiniated and place his personal desires above everything. He will seek excuses to rationalize his behaviour because love, especially self love, covers all faults.

But the matzah character will be more willing to step beyond his personal desires, and fulfill Hashem's Will. When he makes mistakes, he will not try to justify his behaviour, but will seek to correct his faults through teshuvah.

Gut Shabbos to all and a continued inspirational Pesach.