Bringing chametz into the offering
Ramban describes the days between Pesach and Shavuos as resembling Chol HaMoed between a festival’s beginning and its concluding day. Shavuos is Atzeres, a completion of what began with the Exodus. This is a comparison explaining their connection, not a ruling that the entire Omer has the ordinary work restrictions of Chol HaMoed.
The purpose of leaving Egypt was already stated to Moshe:
וַיֹּאמֶר כִּֽי־אֶֽהְיֶה עִמָּךְ וְזֶה־לְּךָ הָאוֹת כִּי אָנֹכִי שְׁלַחְתִּיךָ בְּהוֹצִֽיאֲךָ אֶת־הָעָם מִמִּצְרַיִם תַּֽעַבְדוּן אֶת־הָאלוקים עַל הָהָר הַזֶּֽה׃
He said: For I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you: When you bring the people out of Egypt, you shall serve Hashem upon this mountain. — Exodus 3:12
At Shavuos, the two loaves are specifically leavened:
מִמּוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם תָּבִיאּוּ ׀ לֶחֶם תְּנוּפָה שְׁתַּיִם שְׁנֵי עֶשְׂרֹנִים סֹלֶת תִּהְיֶינָה חָמֵץ תֵּאָפֶינָה בִּכּוּרִים לַֽה׳׃
From your dwellings you shall bring two loaves as a wave offering; they shall be of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked leavened, first fruits to Hashem. — Leviticus 23:17
What Pesach excludes is now brought into the avodah. Reb Noson reads this as a fuller simcha, one able to take hold of what once threatened it and turn it toward holiness. Standing at Sinai, receiving Torah, is described as a return to a purity associated with Adam before the fall.
צְאֶנָה ׀ וּֽרְאֶינָה בְּנוֹת צִיּוֹן בַּמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה בָּעֲטָרָה שֶׁעִטְּרָה־לּוֹ אִמּוֹ בְּיוֹם חֲתֻנָּתוֹ וּבְיוֹם שִׂמְחַת לִבּֽוֹ׃
Go out and see, daughters of Zion, King Shlomo with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding and on the day of his heart’s rejoicing. — Song of Songs 3:11
The Mishnah interprets “the day of his wedding” as Matan Torah and “the day of his heart’s rejoicing” as the building of the Beis HaMikdash. Reb Noson draws on the verse’s wedding and joy imagery in explaining the fullness of Shavuos.
The rav gives the everyday question: if chametz represents such undesirable things, why do people happily eat pizza after Pesach? The Zohar’s image of healing food gives the answer being developed. After receiving the matzah, the person can approach what had to be excluded. By Shavuos, that movement reaches its fuller expression in the commanded leavened loaves.
He compares the process to approaching earlier traumas from a steadier place. Going straight into them while overwhelmed can be too much. From firmer ground, a person may be able to revisit them with compassion and bring more of himself into his present life. The rav’s comparison is about readiness and growth, not a fixed treatment protocol or a guarantee that a date on the calendar makes someone ready.
The change is from running away to being able to say: I can face this now. I do not have to let this part of my life remain permanently outside the circle.
The thanksgiving that remains
The korban todah carries both unleavened and leavened breads:
אִם עַל־תּוֹדָה יַקְרִיבֶנּוּ וְהִקְרִיב ׀ עַל־זֶבַח הַתּוֹדָה חַלּוֹת מַצּוֹת בְּלוּלֹת בַּשֶּׁמֶן וּרְקִיקֵי מַצּוֹת מְשֻׁחִים בַּשָּׁמֶן וְסֹלֶת מֻרְבֶּכֶת חַלֹּת בְּלוּלֹת בַּשָּֽׁמֶן׃
If he offers it for thanksgiving, he shall bring with the thanksgiving sacrifice unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and loaves of fine flour thoroughly mixed with oil. — Leviticus 7:12
עַל־חַלֹּת לֶחֶם חָמֵץ יַקְרִיב קׇרְבָּנוֹ עַל־זֶבַח תּוֹדַת שְׁלָמָֽיו׃
With loaves of leavened bread he shall bring his offering, together with his thanksgiving peace offering. — Leviticus 7:13
The breads are brought with the thanksgiving offering. This does not mean burning chametz on the altar; the Torah separately prohibits that:
כׇּל־הַמִּנְחָה אֲשֶׁר תַּקְרִיבוּ לַה׳ לֹא תֵעָשֶׂה חָמֵץ כִּי כׇל־שְׂאֹר וְכׇל־דְּבַשׁ לֹֽא־תַקְטִירוּ מִמֶּנּוּ אִשֶּׁה לַֽה׳׃
Any meal offering that you bring to Hashem shall not be made leavened, for you shall not burn any leaven or honey as a fire offering to Hashem. — Leviticus 2:11
Vayikra Rabbah 9:7 gives a vision of the future in which other offerings cease while the thanksgiving offering remains. Reb Noson explains its special place through the meeting of chametz and matzah. The fullest thanks can include both the deliverance and the whole history from which the person was delivered.
The rav connects this with the doubled consolation:
נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ עַמִּי יֹאמַר אלוקיכֶֽם׃
Comfort, comfort My people, says your Elokim. — Isaiah 40:1
The first comfort is that exile ends. But someone can still ask: what of all those years that were lost? The second comfort, in the teaching he presents, is the future recognition that those years themselves were held within Hashem’s goodness. He uses very strong language: the whole long exile can be revealed as good, rather than merely followed by something good.
This is a hope for the understanding of redemption. It is not a verdict that an observer can impose on someone suffering now, nor does it make persecution morally acceptable. The offering of thanks expresses the possibility that no part of the person’s story must remain outside his relationship with Hashem.
The future redemption will resemble the Exodus:
כִּימֵי צֵאתְךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם אַרְאֶנּוּ נִפְלָאֽוֹת׃
As in the days when you left the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders. — Micah 7:15
Yet it also differs:
כִּי לֹא בְחִפָּזוֹן תֵּצֵאוּ וּבִמְנוּסָה לֹא תֵלֵכוּן כִּֽי־הֹלֵךְ לִפְנֵיכֶם ה׳ וּמְאַסִּפְכֶם אלוקי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
For you shall not go out in haste, nor go in flight, for Hashem goes before you, and Elokei Yisrael gathers you in. — Isaiah 52:12
This time the people do not need to flee. In Reb Noson’s reading, the opposing force has been subdued more completely. The rav imagines walking out with all one’s “baggage,” without needing to abandon parts of oneself in order to be free. The return is toward redemption, not a return to Egyptian slavery.
Shavuos gives a taste of that future completeness. Its Torah festival is one day, as Reb Noson notes in this symbolism; the additional festival day observed outside Eretz Yisrael is not being denied. The joy of Matan Torah anticipates a freedom that can hold the whole person.
The ten mitzvos within ordinary bread
The teaching finally comes back to eating during the rest of the year. Chametz is permitted, and ordinary bread can belong to kedushah and simcha.
The rav also returns to the distinction between bread received through heaviness and bread received through joy. Tanya, chapter 1, associates atzlus, sluggishness, and atzvus, sadness, with the symbolic element of earth. He uses their connection to describe how sadness can weigh down a person’s movement and energy. This is not a judgment that someone suffering from depression is simply lazy. He again contrasts bread after Adam’s fall with bread before the curse and recalls the future prepared loaves described by Chazal. Shabbos 30b supports the future image; Ben Yehoyada on Pesachim 118a gives a supporting account of prepared bread before the curse. That later commentary is a parallel found during source review, not a work the rav names; the specific tree detail still lacks a checked locator.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 167:4, relates the ten fingers placed on the bread during the blessing to ten mitzvos connected with its preparation. Mishnah Berurah 167:24 lists them: not plowing with an ox and donkey together; not sowing mixed species; not muzzling the working animal during threshing; leket, shikchah, and peah; terumah; the first and second tithes; and challah. These are mitzvos associated with the production of bread in their proper circumstances, not a claim that every loaf in every setting personally requires every one of them.
There are also ten words in the standard Hamotzi blessing. The rav mentions people using those words as a ten-word count for a minyan. That is an illustration of the word count here, not a new instruction to recite a blessing without eating.
Reb Noson connects the ten mitzvos and ten words with the ten kinds of song. The bread that sustains a person can thus draw vitality from the same simcha being developed throughout the Tikkun HaKlali series. In Reb Noson’s account, holy eating also separates the good from the evil mixed through Adam’s fall. Receiving its life through the ten kinds of song joins ordinary eating to the repair at the center of the series.
The rav calls matzah a “vaccine” or medicine in this spiritual comparison: it prepares a person to meet what once threatened to overwhelm him. That word is an analogy, not a claim that matzah is a medical vaccine. Pesach begins the process; Shavuos brings a fuller stage; the future redemption is its complete realization.
For now, the practice begins at the table: eat the matzah with the wish to receive emunah and simcha, protect the good that can presently be held, and allow the work of growth to make room for more of one’s life. The goal is a joy in which the person does not have to leave himself behind.