Q&A: What Is Leavened Food
What Is Leavened Food
Question
An anonymous questioner asked:
Hello Rabbi,
First of all, thank you for the fascinating material; it is simply a pleasure to listen to and read the Rabbi.
I would be grateful if you could enlighten me regarding the idea that leavened food is evil, the root of desire, the root of the evil inclination, idolatry…
These ideas do appear more in the Zohar, but in tractate Berakhot 17 it also mentions “the leaven in the dough,” and Rashi explains that this is the evil inclination. What is the plain meaning of these statements?
And why was it also forbidden to bring leavened food into the Tabernacle and the Temple?
Could it be that their source is the Tabernacle?
Answer
These are merely homiletic interpretations. Ignore them. See my article here:
https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&cx=f18e4f052adde49eb&q=https://mikyab.net/%25D7%259B%25D7%25AA%25D7%2591%25D7%2599%25D7%259D/%25D7%259E%25D7%2590%25D7%259E%25D7%25A8%25D7%2599%25D7%259D/%25D7%259E%25D7%2594-%25D7%259C%25D7%2592%25D7%2599%25D7%2593-%25D7%2594%25D7%25A0%25D7%25A9%25D7%2594-%25D7%2595%25D7%259C%25D7%2597%25D7%259E%25D7%25A5-%25D7%2591%25D7%25A4%25D7%25A1%25D7%2597-%25D7%259E%25D7%25A7%25D7%2595%25D7%25A8%25D7%259D-%25D7%2594%25D7%2594%25D7%2599%25D7%25A1%25D7%2598%25D7%2595%25D7%25A8%25D7%2599/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjMr7zlt86MAxUQQ0EAHehdCe0QFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0xbJrFFi1hi_akQihy0P8V
I didn’t understand your question at the end.
I can’t resist, so I’ll copy here what I received today:
This year I decided for the first time to study the laws of Passover in depth, and I was astonished to discover a certain tone among some halakhic decisors that the commandment to destroy leavened food applies to physical leavened food and not only to the leaven in the heart
Discussion on Answer
Where did you invent the idea that it is forbidden to bring leavened food into the Tabernacle? Has a new stringency just come out?
If so, could you please expand on your approach of ignoring the homilies of the Sages? And when not to…
I understand that there are times when they are completely implausible; is this one of those cases? Or in general is there no reason to pay attention to “homilies”?
Could you explain your reasoning a bit?
Do you hold like Nachmanides’ approach in the writings, or an even more radical approach?
Thank you very much
There are no rules here. Authority was not given to anyone over homiletic interpretations. Authority exists only with respect to Jewish law. As for homilies, choose for yourself whatever seems right to you, whether it is from the Sages, the Pope, or some rabbi nowadays. Whatever does not seem right to you, ignore. That’s all.
Anonymous continued:
If it is forbidden to bring leavened food into the Tabernacle, maybe that is a sign that it is something somewhat negative, and if so maybe they took their ideas from here…
But what is even harder for me is that these ideas appear in the Talmud, both in the Babylonian Talmud and in the Jerusalem Talmud chapter 4, halakha 2…
These things are written again and again, also in later books…
It’s hard to ignore that…