Purification Central

I keep meaning to write down a dvar Torah, and then keep right on forgetting. It really is the pre-Pesach crunch! Anyway, here's a thought that occurred to me earlier this week.

In the 4 parshot leading up to Pesach, we have detailed accounts of the mishkan and other holy vessels, the bigday kehuna, and various sacrifices recounted. What is the correlation between these accounts and our proximity to Pesach?

In the 4 weeks between Purim and Pesach, we are busy scouring our houses, ridding ourselves, our possessions, and our property of chometz. As we know, on a symbolic level, chometz represents the negative side of the spiritual equation: tumah, averos, etc. The very purpose of our cleaning is to elevate ourselves spiritually in preparation for our spiritual commemoration of the exodus. Similarly, the purpose of the mishkan, the bigday kehunah, the sacrifice services, and so forth were to each atone for any short-comings, chasve shalom, of the klal.

Thus, just as the Pesach offering and exodus cleansed the klal of the tumah of slavery, and set them in an upwards spiritual arc that culminated in the revelation at Har Sinai, so now Pesach cleaning prepares us for the reliving of the exodus on Pesach. Similarly, just as the the holiness of the vessels, garments, and sacrifices atoned for the klal during the eras between the exiles, so too does the retelling of these holy articles help cleanse us in preparation for the spiritual geulah on Pesach. And in the merit of such cleansing, the eternal hope is that this Pesach will mark the beginning of the ultimate geulah, with the coming of Mosiach.