Home › Bonita › Bonita
Burning the bread marks spiritual cleansing of Passover
MICHEL FORTIER / Daily News
Stephen Firtell, left, and Rabbi Mandy Greenberg, right, perform the Biur Chametz or burning of the bread ceremony to prepare for passover Friday at the Rabbi's home in Bonita Springs. The ceremony starts with a search through the house for bread by candlelight the night prior to burning. Burning of the bread at home is a tradition.
MICHEL FORTIER / Daily News
Stephen Firtell, left, and Rabbi Mandy Greenberg, right, perform the Biur Chametz or burning of the bread ceremony to prepare for passover Friday at the Rabbi's home in Bonita Springs. The ceremony starts with a search through the house for bread by candlelight the night prior to burning. Burning of the bread at home is a tradition.
More Bonita 
Share and Enjoy 
Rabbi Mendy Greenberg placed the black hibachi-style barbecue on his driveway at noon Friday and then grabbed a brown palm frond that had fallen from one of his trees.
Breaking off a piece of the frond, he bundled an armful of leaves and put them in the grill before lighting the kindling with a wooden match.
As a small fire leapt to life, Greenberg placed a plastic sandwich bag containing a wooden spoon, a white feather and ten small pieces of leavened bread into the flames.
Biur Chametz, or burning the bread, was one of the rabbi’s final preparations for Passover, which begins Saturday at sundown.
“We’re celebrating freedom,” explained Greenberg, who has led Chabad of Bonita Springs and Estero for the past four years. “It’s a spiritual freedom from constraints, the ability and strength to break out of our personal Egypts.”
Passover is the oldest and most widely celebrated Jewish holiday. The 8-day period commemorates the ancient Israelites’ liberation from bondage in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.
During Passover, Jews are forbidden from eating chametz — any food made of grain and water that has been allowed to ferment or rise. The prohibition signifies the haste in which the Israelites had to leave Egypt.
In the days and weeks leading up to the holiday, many Jewish families cleanse their homes of any trace of chametz, meticulously removing products like leavened bread and replacing plates and silverware.
“We do every room, top to bottom, and even the car,” said Stephan Firtell, a Chabad of Bonita and Estero member who placed a brown paper bag filled with bread on top of the rabbi’s fire. “It’s our spring cleaning.”
The hours spent cleaning a home adds meaning to Passover, he said.
“It was a process we went through to gain freedom then, and it shows we’re still going through that process.”
The night before the burning of bread, some Jewish families symbolically search their home by candlelight, using the wooden spoon and feather.
Because the chametz was removed from the home during the earlier cleaning, 10 small pieces of bread are placed around the home for discovery.
Many of the families at Temple Shalom of Naples clean their homes in preparation for Passover, but fewer practice the burning of bread ritual, said Rabbi Brad Bloom.
“We have a diverse set of observances in our temple and people practice to varying degrees,” he said. “Definitely many will be cleaning out their refrigerators and getting rid of leavened products. There are multiple levels on which you can interpret the leaven, but we are re-enacting the exodus in a symbolic way, cleansing our souls of the leaven which in a way is cleansing our souls of slavery.”
“There is a spiritual meaning behind it,” said Greenberg. “We’re not just celebrating a historical event or tradition, it is something we’re re-living.”
This year’s burning of bread is one day early because Passover begins on the Sabbath, said Greenberg.
On Saturday, Jewish families and congregations will celebrate the beginning of the holiday with a Passover Seder. The story of the exodus will be retold through readings, rituals and symbolic foods.
By 12:15 p.m. Friday, Greenberg’s fire had died and the palm frond and bread were reduced to ashes. The rabbi ended the ritual by reciting a Hebrew prayer.
“Just as we eradicated the chametz from our homes, we are asking that God should eradicate all the negative influences from us, and from the world in general,” he explained.
Comments
This site does not necessarily agree with comments posted below. Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. Break our rules, and we will ban you. No exceptions, no second chances. Read our privacy policy & user agreement.
Blessings and hope to you all. May your celebrations be honored, revered and practiced eternally. Blessed Be.
#1 Posted by ravenhawk on April 18, 2008 at 9:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
YeOldeNaples you are absolutely correct.
#2 Posted by ford46 on April 20, 2008 at 5:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Post your comment
(Requires free registration.)