Sunday, April 09, 2006

Eating on Pesach

The mitzvah's of Pesach all revolve around eating, eating, matzah, korban pesach etc.

In fact, Matzah is the only time that we eat a cheftza shel mitzva nowadays. On succos while we have a mitzva to eat in the succah, the mitzva is on the person, the food is not a cheftza shel mitzva. By matzah, the matzah becomes a cheftzah shel mitzva.

Likewise, Korban Pesach is unique amnog korbanos. It is the only korban where there is a chiyuv on the person to eat the meat. Every other korban just has an issur that it shouldn't become נותר, there is no specific chiyuv on you to eat the meat.

The reason for all this is that Pesach is the birth of the Jewish people. Hashem wanted to teach the Jewish people a critical lesson that the purpose of life is to be mekadesh the gashmiyus. A person is supposed to take physical acts and turn them into spiritual acts. This is what eating Matzah and Korban Pesach do. It turns a physical act of eating into a sublime spiritual act. This was a crucial lesson that need to be imparted to the Jewish people before Matan Torah. Eveyrthing depends on a person's kavana, with the right kavan the most physical act can be sanctified.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

very good dvar torah.Especially when we are about to 'stuff ourselves'.This will help remember why.