Excerpting: “Rav Druck on Chumash – Shemos” by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Druck. Artscroll. 426 pages. 2025. ISBN-10: 1422642399.

(Courtesy of Artscroll)

What’s Wrong with Chametz?

The Torah in Parasha Bo tells us that the reason we are commanded to eat matzah on Pesach is to commemorate our being chased out of Mitzrayim in such a hurry that our dough had no time to rise. But what is the reason for the prohibition to eat chametz all seven days of Pesach?

Furthermore, why is the sin of eating chametz considered so severe that it is punishable by kareis (spiritual excision)?

The Arizal teaches that the reason Bnei Yisrael had to leave Mitzrayim in such haste is that they had fallen to the forty-ninth level of tumah, and had they remained there for even a moment longer, they would have fallen to the fiftieth level of tumah, from which they could never have been extricated.

The Shelah uses this idea to shed light on the Haggadah’s statement that “had Hashem not taken us out of Mitzrayim, then we, and our children, and our children’s children would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Mitzrayim.” Had Hashem not hurried to take us out of Mitzrayim at precisely that moment, we would have fallen to the fiftieth level of tumah, and it would have been impossible for us to escape from there.

The prohibition of chametz alludes to this idea. To prevent dough from becoming chametz, one must knead it quickly and ensure that it is baked before eighteen minutes pass, because after the eighteen-minute window elapses it can turn into chametz, and the transformation from matzah into chametz happens in an instant.

This symbolizes the state of Bnei Yisrael in Mitzrayim: Had they remained there one moment longer, they would have fallen to the fiftieth level of tumah and been stuck there forever.

We learn from here that in one moment of lingering, a person can lose all his spiritual assets and fall to the lowest level of tumah, from which there is no return. By attaching a severe punishment to the prohibition of chametz, the Torah is hinting that in one moment a person can cut himself off from the world and lose his entire spiritual standing.

Reprinted from Rav Druck on Chumash by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Druck with permission from the copyright holder, ArtScroll Mesorah Publications.