News from Tzfat

A little about life in Tzfat.
I am planning on moving to the downstairs apartment. I can tell things are going to change again- a new wave of people will be coming in after Pesach, but I am very excited to go back to America and see my room there.

We have been learning a lot about preparing for Pesach, including how to check the house for chometz (leavened bread forbidden from being seen, found, or had pleasure from on Pesach)- the night before Pesach, we hide 10 pieces of bread wrapped in paper befroe checking. The 10 pieces symbolize the 10 powers of the soul, including the emotions (10 sefirot- chochma (flash of intellect), bina (expounded thought), daas (fusion with knowldege), chesed (kindness), gevurah (restraint, severity), tiferes (harmony, beauty), netzach (victory, endurance), hod (splendor), yesod (foundation), malchus (kingship) for more on the sefirot, see chabad.org). It is told about the Alter Rebbe that it took him several hours to clean out his one-room house from chometz and find the 10 hidden pieces. It is understod that he was 'cleaning' each of the aspects of his personality until they were free of "chometz," which can be described as haughty because of its puffy nature.

We also learned that in truth, checking and throwing out cosmetics and hair products is NOT necessary, since they would not be consumed by a dog; Even if the product has wheat or oats in it, the part of chometz is no longer chometz, since the oats, etc. Is not edible... And this is why pouring ammonia over a cleaned countertops makes it chometz- free. It is preferable, however, to put another surface such as PVC or hard plastic ontop of the countertop, just to make sure no residue gets onto your clean pesachdik pots.
That's the news from the hilltop of Tzfat!
Have a great day!