Hunt the Right Crumbs: Let Joy, Not Stress, Lead Your Pesach Prep

We’re closing in on Pesach, with its now-familiar hunt for crumbs of chametz. And Rabbi Nachman reminds us: you can’t really find the crumbs until you’ve gone through the "Purim." In other words, the work of joy in the month of Adar and on Purim is what prepares us to clear out the chametz.

Which means: let’s not confuse things and turn our household into crumbs (your spouse isn’t chametz, and the kids aren’t the korban Pesach) by creating the feeling that everything is falling apart. Without meaning to, you turn each person into a tiny crumb…

"What, you still haven’t cleaned?! How long does it take to organize one closet?"

"I can’t believe it—this is how you wash dishes? What is this mess in the sink? You leave a sink like this?!"

And suddenly even the little they did feels like nothing…

And those crumbs lead to rifts…

And when we drift, day to day, from closeness, unifying family energy, and joy—how will we sit together, relaxed and at ease?

Let’s be clear: Pesach is the holiday of faith—but faith can’t take root without joy!

Joy is the prerequisite for anything sacred!

Only joy is the vessel that can teach any child or adult to notice the infinite good that Hashem planted within them—and that awareness is the foundation of faith.

Rabbi Nachman teaches that one meaning of Purim is to rejoice in every little thing—even if it’s the size of a crumb.

This idea appears in one of Rabbi Natan’s letters to his son, Rabbi Yitzchak, in the book Alim L’Terufah (Letter 63): just as a bird survives by pecking up crumbs—consuming, in a day, crumbs that total five times its body weight—so a Jew can keep spiritually alive by taking in very small crumbs of mitzvot and kindnesses. As taught in the Gemara, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says: "All the mitzvot that Israel do in this world come and testify for them in the Olam HaBa," and the verse concludes "They will hear and say \"Truth\"" - these are the idol-worshippers: the nations will hear the testimony and say, "Truth—this is a just judgment!"

For the Children of Israel are worthy of receiving the reward of the Olam HaBa. And Chiddushei HaMeiri is precise about the word "all" mitzvot, writing: "A person should never treat the mitzvot lightly—whether 'light' or 'severe'—for the 'light' ones are a gateway to something eternal, sometimes even more than those a person imagines to be more 'severe'." And as it is said elsewhere: "Be as careful with a light mitzvah as with a severe one, for you do not know the reward of the mitzvot." It’s a well-known rule: anyone who fulfills the mitzvot properly merits, through them, eternal life.

In other words, Rabbi Natan asks us to cherish every tiny crumb we manage to grab in doing mitzvot. It’s like someone who deposits only five shekels in a bank account—and the account grows to five hundred thousand shekels!

This is how we give ourselves and our families the dignity and spiritual prestige that keep our joy level high. It isn’t right to belittle our actions, our pace, or that of our family members. That only breeds heaviness and stuckness.

To arrive at Pesach with a true feeling of cleanliness, let’s seize the opportunity and value every chance to gather even a tiny crumb. Every little crumb matters; every compliment and word of encouragement has immeasurable ripple effects of inner growth and blossoming.

Look up at the stars: they seem like tiny dots, but in truth each star is bigger than Earth. Sometimes you feel small within yourself—your mood drags you down—and that makes you see others as small and unhelpful. But if you lift yourself higher, raising your soul toward the infinite good that surely lives within you, suddenly everyone will look positive and good.

Every tiny crumb we find moves us toward believing in ourselves and in Hashem.

Until the moment arrives of "and in just a little while, there is no wickedness." A little more, and there’s no chametz—there is matzah. "I found the one my soul loves," and that is… me and my family. I found them within all the confusion; I turned "bal yera’eh u’bal yimatzeh" into a finding of heart—of budding.