You can also see this article at the Miami Herald and listen to the interactive audio.

Do you want to do the right thing? The unanimous answer of a healthy individual to that question is always yes. Ok, how do you feel when you do the right thing? The answer to that question may range from “I feel great, good, successful, whole, happy, etc. Now, let me ask you a more difficult question, do you always do the right thing? Why not? You just told me how wonderful it makes you feel?

We don’t always do the right thing because we are enslaved. We lack the inner strength to overcome our lust, anger, arrogance or jealousy. Consequently we end up being a slave and a servant to our crude and unrefined character, destroying our lives and the lives of our loved ones in the wake of our transgressions. We see that even the rich and famous can ruin their achievements with one appalling act during a moment of weakness.

Our great Rabbis explain that Egypt represented the epitome of decadence and was an absolute vacuum of any spiritual values (1). So besides being physically enslaved we were also spiritually enslaved. The Hebrew root of the word Pharaoh means, “to lay open or untie”. The king of Egypt tried to open up and exposed the Jews to all the impurity and immorality of his corrupt society (2). His multinational campaign for consumerism and sensuality left us helpless and despondent. In such an environment was it possible to be moral? Sound familiar? Our Rabbis tell us that we were one step away from spiritual destruction.

During Passover we are given an annual chance to revitalize our spirituality. We eat matzah rather than bread which symbolizes the physical pleasures of this world (3). G-d redeemed us and gave us His Torah, with its faultless balance, as a remedy for our material drives (4) and only someone who is involved in Torah is free. (5) Freedom means the opportunity to live in purity. The freedom to act according to the highest standards of morality as a human being created in the image of G-d is the supreme freedom. Man’s greatest pleasure is to do what is right. Have a great Passover.


1. The Maharal quoting the Zohar
2. Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler
3. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
4. Kiddushin 30b
5. Avot 6:2
This word is based on Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rabbi Mitterhoff,

Rabbi Mitterhoff, thank you for writing that! Just yesterday I was having a talk with my seven-year-old daughter about the customs of Passover, and she was mad because she wanted to try a new recipe in her children's cookbook that would not be appropriate for Passover. She asked why we could not eat bread on Passover, and I explained what had been explained to me: "When the Jews finally had a chance to escape, they had to grab their bread before it had a chance to rise. Every time we have to think about what to eat/not eat on Passover, we are reminded of how G-d led us out of Egypt." I'm embarrassed to admit that my daughter's reaction was, "It's stupid to not eat bread just to remember that we couldn't eat bread. Anyway, right away we were given manna in the desert!" Now I have a much better answer to give her! (And a better answer for myself!) I even think I know how to rephrase your answer so that perhaps she will understand...

Just a thought...Why DO you think we were given manna in the dessert, instead of matzoh? Weren't we at a very corrupt period of our history then, which was why G-d WANTED us to be lost for 40 years? Wouldn't that have been the perfect time to feed us matzoh to remind us not to think of physical pleasures?

I am happy yo liked my word. The manna was even more spiritual then Matzah. It came directly from heaven, was completely absorbed by the body with need to use the bathroom afterwards. If a person sinned the manna fell further away and he had to shelp for it. When he repented it fell close by.

quote:

It came directly from heaven, was completely absorbed by the body with need to use the bathroom afterwards.

I remember learning, that one one didn't need to go to the bathroom after eating the manna

Sorry I meant without the need

Even though the Gemarah in Yuma (last Perek in the Man Sugya)says that after they complained they needed to use the bathroom