Cleaning Time – Bat Mitzvah of Eliza Peterson (Parashat Ahare Mot, April 12, 2014)

With Passover starting on Monday night, observant Jews everywhere are cleaning our homes, cars, and offices.  I am searching out those elusive crumbs in all of my drawers, wondering how they seem to multiply the minute the kitchen light goes off for the night.  We are commanded to remove leavened foods from our lives for the entire Passover holiday, and all of that begins with our traditional Jewish spring cleaning.  At our house, we start right after the festival of Purim, giving ourselves about a month to finish cereals, breads, and pastas, and to do that extra scrubbing and organizing that makes the Passover holiday truly feel like redemption, after the servitude of housework.

But, Eliza’s portion this Shabbat morning doesn’t highlight the Passover holiday, as close as it is on the calendar. Instead, her portion contains the commandment to observe our holiest day of the year: Yom Kippur, which comes in the fall.  And yet, you may be surprised to learn that this holiday, too, is about being clean.

Eliza read Leviticus 16:30:

“For on this day, atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you (to purify you) of all of your sins; you shall be clean (pure) before the Lord.”

This is not a cleaning that requires plastic gloves or a mop or broom.   This cleaning required by God is a spiritual one.  Once a year, we need to rid our lives of the sins and guilt that plague us.  In many ways, being clean before God is a lot harder and takes a lot more work.  Spiritual cleaning requires self scrutiny, and remorse, a good look in a shiny mirror and many hours of replaying our words and actions.  In order to stand before God, we must first be able to stand on the merits of our daily lives.  We must honestly confront all those times we led less than exemplary lives.

On this Shabbat HaGadol, this great Sabbath before Passover, Eliza takes a huge step into Jewish adulthood. From today onward, she is a spiritual adult.  Her Passover observance goes on her scorecard with God.  And when she comes into this sanctuary on Yom Kippur this year, she, not her parents, will be responsible for the assessment of her actions.  As a Bat Mitzvah, a daughter of the commandments, Eliza will need to be clean before the Lord every Yom Kippur for the rest of her life.

And I am not worried at all about Eliza Peterson.  Eliza understands that the way to get to Yom Kippur without stress is to live an exemplary life all of the time, or at least most of the time.  Her mitzvah project of “spreading kindness” has been an ongoing reminder to all of us who love her of her constant commitment to partner with God in making our world a better and more loving place.

I told Eliza’s story at the JCC Senior Citizen Seder that I led yesterday.  I told them of her commitment last Passover to spend a year spreading kindness and I challenged all of them to do the same.  One woman cried as I told Eliza’s story.

In the world Eliza creates there is no ugliness or unkindness, insensitivity or intolerance.  I love living on Eliza’s planet and orbiting in her beautiful universe.  And I admire her honesty and self examination.  She self evaluates regularly and shares honestly, even when she might prefer to avoid taking responsibility for a slight or an action.  I applaud Eliza’s understanding that God knows we won’t always be perfectly clean (pure), but expects us to at least give it our best try.

As the teens in the room know, it is not always easy to raise parents, and to refrain from raising one’s voice when they are being stubborn, But, following the commandment to honor parents, even when they are being difficult is ultimately a better path for peace and harmony than creating a battle field in your family kitchen or shedding blood at the dinner table.  And always telling the truth may be hard, but it is so much easier than having to remember lies.  Eliza’s Haftarah reminds us that the prophet, Elijah, doesn’t only come to our homes at Passover. Elijah actually comes every week, on Saturday night as the Sabbath leaves us, to bring the hearts of parents close to children and the hearts of children close to parents.

Being spiritually clean, implies being morally clean, drug and alcohol free, and free of the ugliness that pollutes our world, our media, and our social media. Aspiring to be spiritually clean is more than a goal.  In Eliza’s portion, it is a direct command from the Most High.

When I walk into a dirty room, it is often hard to know where to start.  Every person does the work of cleaning differently.  But, we are always encouraged by God to do our best.

A man involved in real estate bought a “fixer upper house” in a nice neighborhood. The house was an eyesore, and needed months of cleaning and repair.  He enlisted the help of a friend who was out of work and down on his luck, a friend who had helped him repair many houses for resale over the years, always doing a good job and earning his salary.  All he told the friend was that he couldn’t pay him until the end of the job.

The friend looked at the house and all the work that needed to be done and thought that since he would only get paid at the end that he could get away with not doing such a great job this time.  He cleaned, but not enough. He repaired, but not with the best materials, and he worked enough to get credit, but this time, he didn’t really put his best self into it.

When the house was done, the real estate owner came to his friend with the key to the house and said, after all these years of friendship, I want to give you this house as a gift, free and clear.  As you cleaned and repaired it, I hope you enjoy living in it.

God gives us bodies and lives in very much the same way.  If we live clean lives and do the spiritual work of cleaning our hearts and living to the best of our ability, then we will reap the rewards. If we put off the work or don’t do such a good job, it will certainly affect who we are and where we will reside.  Ultimately, we have to live with ourselves and we are a product of our own cleaning.  At the end of our lives, our deeds build the house of our eternity and our legacy.

Which brings me to Eliza.  This Bat Mitzvah girl, young woman, has done a spectacular job with her house.

Eliza is a shining example of what it means for hard work to pay off.  She has done her very best with the life God has given her and today she has come to God spiritually clean.  God hands her the keys to the palace she has created for herself – a palace she shares with everyone who is the beneficiary of her acts of lovingkindness.

When your time comes to receive the keys to your house, will you want to live there?