Thursday, March 18, 2010

Some thoughts on Pesach Cleaning

Here is something to meditate on while cleaning for Passover and Bedikas Chametz
 
From the upcoming MeOros Kedushas Levi Vol II on Moadim:

Once, when the Rebbe Maharash of Lubavitch was traveling through Berditchev, he saw a group of elderly Tolna chassidim carrying buckets of water and scrubbing the walls and floor of a little shul in preparation for a visit from their Rebbe the following day.

When the Rebbe asked them why they were doing all the work themselves instead of letting the younger chassidim help them, they answered, "We are doing this ourselves because we want to have healthy angels to assist the advocating angels who come out of the tekios, the blasts of the shofar."

"You know the Yehi Ratzon that is said after the tekios of Rosh HaShanah — the one that mentions 'the angels that are formed from the blowing of the shofar, and from the tekia, the shevarim, the teruah, and the tekiah, (kshr"k),' [the identifying letters of the Hebrew words that signify the various sounds of the shofar]?

Well, one Rosh HaShanah the holy Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev said: 'Sweet Father, compassionate Father! Just in case the angels that proceed from the shofar that Levi Yitzchak the son of Sarah Sasha has just blown are weak angels, let their place be taken by the holy, healthy angels that were created by the toil of Your people in preparation for Passover, as they cleaned their kitchen utensils in order to fulfill their mitzvah as perfectly as possible:

kratzen (scouring), shobben (scraping), rieben (rubbing), and kasheren (making kosher)!'" — [for the initials of these four Yiddish words are also kshr"k].

(Likkutei Dibburim of the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch, Vol. I p. 280)

Similarly we find in the holy sefer Kav HaYashar Part II Chapter 89:

"It is proper to teach the women of Beis Yisroel to have the following in mind while they are kashering their utensils from Chametz for Pesach through hagalah and libun that [just as they are removing the Chametz ] so should the Holy One should remove and destroy the evil inclination, evil and wickedness from the land. And we trust in the Holy One to removed idolatry from our midst.

The minhag of Yisroel is Torah, that they have the custom to scrape clean tables, benches and chairs as well as the walls from any suspicion of contact with Chametz (Shulchan Aruch OC 442:6 and Tur Orach Chaim 442 in the name of the Raban) and Hashem's watchful eyes gaze over all the actions of Bnei Yisroel His treasured people who are holy and the sons of the holy ones whose hard work and labor is all for the sake of removing and destroying chametz all the days of the month of Nissan, and so should the Holy One scrape away all the afflictions which come from the "other side" [which are found sunk in the walls of homes in this bitter exile] and any prosecutions against us and from their power they cause us suffering in this bitter exile."

(it is known that the Rebbe Reb Melech of Lizensk author of Noam Elimelech studied and memorized the holy sefer Kav HaYashar and that he had reviewed it Kav times (102 times!) the same gematria as the name and number of chapters.[Toras Chessed Intro.], the Sar Shalom of Belz said that he studied the Kav HaYashar 102 times and that he drew his fear of heaven from the mussar found in this sefer [Shefa Chaim II Tavo p6, Haskama of R Moshe Aryeh Freund] and the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch told his students to study this sefer [Likkutei Dibburim I p54] )

 
Kol Tuv,
R' Tal Moshe Zwecker
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