Cleaning with Emunah

People have spent hours upon hours cleaning their homes and making sure to get rid of every last bit of chametz. The nashim tzidkaniyot have had sleepless nights doing very difficult tasks to ensure that not even a crumb of chametz will remain in their homes. And although it is good to feel satisfaction over our accomplishments in avodat Hashem, we still must be careful not to let it get to our heads. There is a yetzer hara that tries to make a person feel that she is the best cleaner, and that she has her Pesach cleaning down to a science, and there's no way it would ever be possible to find any drop of chametz in her house. We must always remember, no matter how much hishtadlut a person puts into any mitzvah, there is no guarantee of success. If we truly want success, we have to beg Hashem to give us siyata dishmaya . We have to pray to Hashem to bless our efforts and ensure that indeed we will be saved from even a ma'shehu of chametz on Pesach. We may have the best cleaning tools, the greatest cleaning crew and the greatest drive to succeed. But if we don't have help from Hashem, we have nothing. Part of getting siyata dishmaya is humbling ourselves and recognizing we can't do the job without Hashem's help. The Divrei Yatziv related a story that was told to him by his grandfather, the Divrei Chayim , about a tzaddik, who was careful with every chumra and hiddur when it came to chametz on Pesach. One year, during the seder, this tzaddik was served soup and floating on the top was a wheat kernel. He had complete chametz right in front of him and he fainted on the spot. After Pesach, he fasted many days and did teshuva for unintentionally owning chametz on the holiday. He then did what's called a she'elat chalom to find out why this happened to him. And he was told in a dream it was because he felt too confident in his own efforts and never asked Hashem for help in fulfilling the mitzvah. When someone has Hashem's help, he has everything. Rabbi Avraham Eliyahu Meisels was moser nefesh to keep every last detail of Halacha. But because of it, he was taken to Siberia to do back-breaking labor. But even while he was there, he displayed the same mesirut nefesh and continued following every single Halacha. When the Shevet Halevy gave a eulogy for Rabbi Meisels, he said, "When the rabbi was asked about his experiences in Siberia, he would say, in this world he's not revealing them. But when he stands before the Kiseh Hakavod after 120, it's going to be the first thing he speaks about." But here and there, he did tell of a few episodes. And his children told one of them. They said it was so hard for people in Siberia to keep track of time. Regarding Shabbat, most people were able to just keep counting seven days and know what day it was. But keeping the holidays was much more of a difficult task. But their father was steadfast in his commitment to Torah and mitzvot, and he did everything in his power to keep track of the days, to know when each holiday would begin. One year, after he finished bedikat chametz, he washed his hands and was about to eat the last piece of chametz which he saved. Before he got a chance to say hamotzi on the food, an officer was banging at his door. He had been summoned by the commander because a package arrived for him. He was so happy. He was hoping it was matzot for Pesach. When he arrived, the commander told him, he checked through his package to make sure everything sent to him was legal. He found a calendar hidden there, which was against the law for him to have. With great anger, the commander threw the calendar down to the floor, right in front of the rabbi. Miraculously, the calendar opened up to the month of Nisan and the rabbi was able to see that he was one day off in his calculation. That night was the first night of Pesach. Hashem had just protected him at the last moment from eating chametz, by having that officer knock on his door. When we have siyata dishmaya in our performance of mitzvot, we have everything. It's up to us to humble ourselves and realize that we cannot succeed without the help of Hashem. And then, we have to beg Him for His help.