From the inimitable Shmuly T, a video meditation on an aspect of Passover that may not be as widely known as unleavened bread: the ritual significance of Passover cleaning:
Some Jews associate spring cleaning with cleaning for Passover. While others, concerning Passover cleaning, state emphatically, "All I have to do is get rid of the chametz (leavened products). I don't need to wash my Venetian blinds and wax my floors!"
It is true that cleaning for Passover doesn't have to include major spring cleaning. Though for some of us, the smells of Murphy's Oil Soap or Lestoil are just as bound up with Passover as say, matza ball soup and horseradish.
But, whichever way you do it, the cleaning itself -- getting down on hands and knees or climbing up on top of ladders -- is closely tied to the theme of the Passover holiday itself.
According to Chasidic philosophy, bread and chametz symbolize the egotism and haughtiness within each of us. Chametz puffs up like a haughty person's chest, swells like an egotistical person's head. Matza, on the other hand, is flat, low, humble. Even the fact that its flavor is bland, nearly tasteless, attests to its modesty.
Before Passover, when we are checking cracks and corners, looking behind bookcases and inside briefcases for chametz, we are laboring at a job that doesn't require much thought. That gives us plenty of time to be introspective about whether we've been behaving like chametz or matza for the past year. And if we find that we are full of chametz, then pre-Passover cleaning time is the perfect opportunity to check the cracks and corners of our own personalities and dig out these dreadful traits.
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