Vayikra- The Yeast in the Dough

Kol hamincha asher takrivu lA-donai lo tei’aseh chametz ki chol s’or v’chol d’vash lo taktiru mimenu isheh lA-donai.

Every mincha (grain offering) that you bring to God shall not be made with leaven, for any leaven or any honey you will not offer as fire to God.     (Vayikra 2:11)

 The mincha was the meal, or flour sacrifice that was offered in the afternoon, to which our Mincha service is connected. It had to be pure grain without leaven or honey. Honey was, in the ancient world, considered a food of the pagan gods. We were meant to separate our sacrifices, which were eaten by the bearer and the kohanim, from pagan sacrifices needed to feed their gods. For this reason, honey was forbidden, but why leaven? Today we see beautifully risen loaves of bread as special. We seek large, fluffy challot for our holydays and s’machot. But in ancient times, and in our text, chametz and s’or, two kids of leaven, are seen as corruption and degradation. They are things from which we must separate ourselves.

Yeast in dough, leavening, can be enlightening and expansive. It can be a positive agitator or create a thing of beauty. Yeast transforms. Motivational speaker, Paul J. Meyer has said, “Enthusiasm is the yeast that raises the dough.” This is true.  However, leavening allowed to run unchecked creates fluff without substance.” Dough, which is leavened without the balance of salt to keep the yeast in check, will, at best, be tasteless, and will eventually collapse in upon itself. Dennis Potter, an English journalist, wrote, “A bad act done will fester and create in its own way. It’s not only goodness that creates. Bad things create. They have their own yeast.” Our tradition sees leaven as decay. It is a process that creates gas but not substance. It is not pure, and therefore, has no place in our sacrifices.

Pesach is almost upon us. On the first two days we are commanded to eat matzah, the unleavened bread that the Israelites ate. We are commanded to eat this, as our ancestors did, since they did not have time for their dough to rise. But beyond the mitzvah to eat matzah, we are commanded to remove all chametz from our homes for all eight days of Pesach. To our tables we bring only the pure, that which is without leaven, without decay. The month of Nisan is one of our new years. While we count our years from Tishrei, Nisan is the first month of the year, which is renewed each spring.  As such, it is an appropriate time for us to again look around and inward to remove impurities from our lives. But unlike Tishrei, at Nisan we seek hametz, impurity, together, as families and as a community. The search for hametz is shared, and no one need do it alone.

Together we should remember the lesson of Pesach, it is not only the hungry who need to come and eat, all who are needy should come and celebrate the Pesach with us. No one need be alone in his or her search for purity. We are supported by our families and the community around us.