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The ĥametz, prohibited on Passover, is formed by the rising of dough and symbolizes arrogance and pride, which inflate a person beyond their true size. By contrast, matza represents humility, remaining in the original size God created. If ĥametz hints at arrogance, why isn't it forbidden all year round?
The answer is there are two types of pride. The first is when people have an exaggerated sense of self-worth, thinking they are wiser, stronger, or more successful than they actually are. Any intelligent person understands this type of pride impairs a person’s judgment and harms the ability to actualize one's potential. Clearly, such pride is inappropriate all year long, and has nothing to do with the prohibition of ĥametz.
The second type of pride, which corresponds to ĥametz on Passover, is one's pride within the relationship with one's Creator. Jewish faith is predicated on the acknowledgment that God created the world and determines its destiny, and everything at its root depends on Him alone. Even though God gave people the ability to improve and develop the world, their power is limited to the “branches,” not the divinely created roots. It is not people but God Who created life and the world, Who created human beings in His image, and Who gave His Torah to the Jews. Therefore, when people think about the fundamentals of creation and life, they must wrap themselves in humility. Just as someone who considers suicide is overstepping one's bounds, because it is God Who is in charge of life and death, so too someone who imagines human thought determines faith is overstepping. Eating ĥametz on Passover is comparable to this hubris, this forbidden pride.
Passover is designed to instill in us the fundamentals of faith. Whenever an aspect of the divine is revealed in the world, it happens miraculously. This makes it clear the event is not natural but supernatural, not human but divine. Thus, the Exodus was accompanied by signs and wonders, to make it clear to the world that Jewish chosenness is something divine. Similarly, the Torah was given with open miracles, to a generation sustained by miracles for forty years in the desert, to make it clear this was all divine. In other words, we did not invent the fundamentals of faith but we do absorb them.
Therefore, on Passover, which is meant to inculcate the fundamentals of faith, we are commanded to be extremely careful to avoid eating even a morsel of ĥametz, symbolizing hubris, but to eat matza, symbolizing humility and faith. During the rest of the year, when we are involved in developing and improving God’s world, eating ĥametz is desirable and praiseworthy.
