בס”ד

Parashat Bo – Humility and Pride

This week’s Torah reading contains the commandments of Passover (Pesach). One of the centers of the holiday is the prohibition of eating leavened bread and the obligation to eat unleavened bread. Based on Likutei Sichot, vol. 1, p. 129

Parashat Bo: Passover, Matzah, and the Spiritual Choice Between Pride and Humility

This week’s Torah reading is called Bo, which means “come.” In this parashah, G-d brings the final three plagues upon Egypt through Moshe Rabbeinu and then commands the Jewish people to leave Egypt.

Between these two monumental events, the last three plagues and the Exodus, there is a very specific commandment and holiday that the Jewish people are instructed to observe: Pesach (Passover).

Two Dimensions of Every Commandment

Passover contains many laws. Most of them apply specifically to Jews and not to non-Jews. However, we know that every single commandment in the Torah has two dimensions:

  1. The practical commandment – what to do and what not to do.
  2. The spiritual lesson behind the commandment – which often applies to everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike.

Chametz vs. Matzah: More Than Just Bread

One of the central elements of Passover, though not the only one, is the prohibition of eating chametz (leavened bread) and the obligation to eat matzah (unleavened bread).

Chametz is bread that has risen.
Matzah is flat, unleavened bread.

Interestingly, 2,000 years ago matzah was not as thin as it is today. It was more like a large, tough bread, still unleavened, but much thicker. Today, however, matzah is very flat and crisp.

So what is the deeper difference between chametz and matzah?

A Hidden Message in Hebrew Letters

When we look at the Hebrew words for these two types of bread, we notice something fascinating. The words matzah (מצה) and chametz (חמץ) are almost identical. They share the letters mem (מ) and tzadik (צ). The only difference is one letter.

Both letters are made up of three lines and are open at the bottom. But there is one crucial difference:

What the Letters Teach Us

Our Sages explain the meaning of this symbolically.

The opening at the bottom of both letters represents what G-d told Cain after he killed his brother:
“Sin is crouching at the door.”

In other words, the opportunity to sin is always open and easily accessible. It takes very little effort to fall downward. That’s why the bottom is wide open, it’s easy to slip into negative behavior.

However, when a person is represented by the letter chet, there is no opening above. There is no clear way out. The only exit is downward, and that leads to a bad place.

The letter hey, on the other hand, also has the opening at the bottom, because temptation is always there, but it has an additional opening above, even though it is very small. That small opening represents the possibility of escape, repentance, and growth.

Our Sages say that G-d tells each of us:

“Open for Me even a tiny opening, like the eye of a needle, and I will open for you a huge door.”

G-d does not demand perfection. He asks for effort. Even the smallest sincere step upward invites enormous divine support.

Chametz = Pride

Matzah = Humility

Chametz represents growth that comes from ego, from pride and arrogance. Just like leavened dough inflates, so does a person’s sense of self-importance. This mindset says:

“I deserve what I have.”

You can even see this in a mitzvah like tzedakah (charity). A person might give charity while thinking:

“I deserve my wealth. I earned it. The other person is poor because they deserve it.”

Even though the mitzvah is technically fulfilled, it is filled with ego.

Matzah, by contrast, represents humility and self-nullification (bitul). It reflects the understanding that whatever we have is not because we deserve it, but because G-d blessed us. And perhaps the reason we were given that blessing is so that G-d can bless someone else through us.

Our Sages go even further and say:

“More than the rich person does for the poor, the poor person does for the rich.”

Why? Because the poor person gives the rich person the opportunity to fulfill a mitzvah and connect to G-d.

The Spiritual Meaning of Passover

When the Jewish people were in Egypt, they lived with a slave mentality, limited, oppressed, and constrained. G-d tells them:

If you want to leave Egypt—your personal limitations—you must first leave arrogance behind.

That is why, before redemption, G-d commands us:

Do not eat chametz. Eat matzah.

Let go of pride. Embrace humility. Recognize that you exist for a purpose, to be an emissary of goodness, an ambassador of life in this world, so that others can connect to G-d through you.

That is the spiritual freedom of Passover.

Talk from Rabbi Tuvia Serber


The above is a representation of the spoken text converted to written text.

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