This is Shabbat HaGadol, the longest Shabbat of the year when the rabbi traditionally gave one of the two mandatory sermons, the other being on the Shabbat before Yom Kippur. On Shabbat HaGadol he would explain all the minutia with regard to the laws of Pesah.
Usually he would say that a food was not kosher if but one sixtieth of the food was unkosher. On Pesah, however, a food is unkosher if even one thousandth of it is of a forbidden food. Indeed, all during the year one violates the law if he or she eats what is forbidden, but on Pesah one violates the law even if he or she sees the prohibited foods on the shelf.
Pesah is really the time f the year that we begin anew. Physically we clean house and throw our all that is old and decaying. All those boxes that have lined our shelves are to be thrown to the trash. Our homes that usually are expected to be clean are expected to sparkle on Pesah, and the reason is simple. Spring allows us new growth. Spring allows us to begin again. When the flowers begin to bloom and the leaves appear, and nature is renewed, we have a desire to renew our lives—in a different way than we renew them on Yom Kippur.
On Pesah we do not take time to admit our faults. We do not need to. Pesah is a liberating holiday at a liberating time of the year when the very world urges us to dream and make those dreams happen. It is a time that begs us to look forward at possibilities and not backward at mistakes made.
On Yom Kippur we look back at our mistakes. On Pesach we look forward and dream. Both are new years; both are religious times, but only one allows us to reach out to the heavens. Only one allows us to dream.
And my sermon on this day is as long as the spring. Breathe deeply and dream and may your dreams happen.