Countdown to Pesach 28: Fast Action

“They are all adulterers, their passions burning like an oven fired by a baker. The Inciter (Evil Inclination) rests from the kneading of the dough until its leavening.” (Hosea 7:4) Even if a person can quiet the Evil Inclination – Yetzer Harah – it will only rest the amount of time it takes for dough to leaven. (Radak)

This is why we focus so much on how easily things can become Chametz. We are careful about the time the dough is moist. We even watch the wheat, before it is ground into flour, to make sure that it does not get wet. We are repeatedly reminding ourselves to “watch out for leavening”, meaning, to constantly remember that even if our Yetzer Harah is quiet for the moment, it only rests for very short time spans. (Machberes Avodas Hashem)