You have to put it out of your mind completely. It does not even exist. For these seven days, any sign of unsupervised growth must be burnt, before the wild weeds take over the fallow earth. The cycle of Jewish living during the year is not a balanced picture. On the contrary, it offers experiences of extremes, that we may inculcate the message into our lives.
Today is Pesach, and the experience is pure freedom.
To make that a positive experience, we must conduct an obsessive search to eliminate any weeds in the garden. The earth is bare, must be bare, but that is a beautiful sight to one who knows what he can plant there. Tomorrow, starting on the second day of Pesach, we begin to count, each day, seven weeks, moving towards the days of planting. On the fiftieth day, when we have learned to control the powers and harness them to infinite goals of value, we will be able to bring a sacrifice of chametz, of development and growth. The rising dough symbolizes the overweening spirit of man.