Shalom friends!

Pesach is coming up, and soon we'll all be cleaning and checking for chametz in every corner of our house. I hope that we will all be zoche to also do another kind of bedika, and search out our hearts for the impurity of lust. Lust is like chametz in that it is selfish. It is the yetzer hara's bread of ego, the sustenance for the idea that the world exists to give pleasure to me. When I do my physical cleaning for chametz this year, one of my kavanas will be that this avoda will be also for a spiritual cleaning, and may we be all succeed in going into seder night with a house completely clean from chametz and a heart completely free of lustful avera.

When Pesach comes, and we do the spiritual work of leaving Mitzrayim in all its forms, let's make the challenges we face against our yetzer hara one of the restrictions that we leave behind, and become truly free. Just as we leave Mitzrayim in order to receive the Torah and in order to serve Hashem, may our success in staying clean enable us to multiply our success in receiving our portion in Hashem's Torah and in serving him with a complete heart.

Chag kasher vsameach to all of you, your families, and your communities!

Anyone else want to share some thoughts regarding Pesach, whether related to our journey or otherwise?