In the previous generation, when Passover came the whole atmosphere would change. We remember that in the house of the great grandfather, the Rebbe Meir Abuchatzira, these special preparations for Pesach were there. We remember that even the food at Baba Meir's house had a different taste. Matzoh had a different taste, everything had a different taste, and it's not that anything has changed in the flavors - it's possible that today we know how to make tastier things, but there was something spiritual and special, a special spice in the food of Hashem. A spice of simplicity and dedication, a spice of constant and hard work that worked before Passover.
Today we prepare for Passover with great ease, in the previous generations, they bothered to bake the matzot since the previous summer - today we go to the store and in an instant we buy the matzot. In previous generations, they would prepare the wine for Passover by themselves - today you go to the store and buy cases of wine in 2 minutes. In previous generations, they would start cleaning and preparing the house for Pesach as early as Purim and even before. Today, a few days before the holiday, they bring a company to clean the whole house.
Not just Passover. Let's think about how in previous generations the Hanukkah candles were prepared, they took the wool and prepared the wicks. We remember how Mrs. Emi Shethai would prepare the wicks for her Hanukkah, and today we go and buy a ready-made box with the Hanukkah candles, everything in an instant and everything is ready.
The previous generations had a special spice due to the toil and trouble they toiled and invested before the holiday. Today's Passover is the same Passover of old, maybe even more elaborate and more beautiful, more comfortable and easier. But the Passover of previous generations was a Passover with the spice of labor and trouble. People would put their soul into the holiday and it was the special spice that has not been in recent generations.
Two people can perform a mitzvah, one will receive a huge reward and one will receive a small reward. Two people gave a hundred NIS to charity, one will receive a huge reward for it and the other a little, because for a poor person a hundred NIS is all he has and he will receive a huge reward for this mitzvah, and for a rich man it is nothing and he will receive a small reward for it.
Today we don't have a lot of toil and trouble in keeping the mitzvot, a person who wants to hear a Torah lesson presses a button and hears a Torah lesson. Whereas in the old days the old man Hillel had to climb on the roof of the Beit Midrash, to hear the lesson through the chimney and the whole thing was covered in snow until fainting. That is why a person should think about how he labored in honor of the holiday in order to bring the special taste into the mitzvah, if the person does not toil before the mitzvah he will not have any taste in the mitzvah.
We see that G-d commanded the people of Israel before the Passover sacrifice to go and take the lamb - the foreign work of the Egyptians and tie it to a bed for a few days. We were asked if a sacrifice should be offered to G-d, why did G-d command to take the lamb and tie it to a bed for a few days?
But God wanted there to be tension - that the Egyptians would see that they took their God and tied him to a bed, people would worry and be stressed, they would be afraid that the Egyptians would come and slaughter them for taking their God and tied him to a bed and desecrate him. God wanted this tension and this dedication of the soul to be a mitzvah and when they sit To eat the Passover sacrifice will have great meaning and this Passover will have a special taste that does not exist if one does not sacrifice one's soul.
Say from now on, there is a special spice called toil and sacrifice and devotion, if one labors and tirelessly sacrifices one's soul, there is this spice in the food that will be holy and special. The matzah before me Thirty years ago is not like today's, maybe it is more sophisticated today, but it lacks the special spice of dedication. The food of Passover thirty years ago is not like today's, because it does not have the taste it had thirty years ago.
It can be interpreted that this Also the question of the evil one from the Haggadah "What is this work for you?" - You can buy matzah at the store, what is the work for? You can buy wine at the store, what is the work for? If so, how do we restore this work today and restore the taste for mitzvos and good deeds, the taste for Passover, Sukkot and Hanukkah?
One of the ways is the mitzvah Kamha Depasscha. It is a very high mitzvah that has no second and compels all the residents of the city to donate money to the poor for Kamha Depasscha.
Today we don't have the taste and work that they used to do for Passover with great dedication, to work and slaughter the lamb, to prepare the matzah, to work a great toil that does not exist today in making the matzah, in preparing the wine and food for the holiday, this world has changed. But this labor still exists in the Passover flour, when we will labor in the Passover flour and everyone will impress upon his children, grandchildren and family members that he prepares the Passover flour for the poor and he personally cares for the poor, in this he fulfills what this work is for you, the spice that is missing on Passover Eve and in this he puts the spice for all his family members.
David Berger, in collaboration with Shuba Israel