In order for dough to rise and turn into chometz, it must have yeast. Yeast cells
are tiny microscopic cells that are in the air but are invisible and can only be seen with
a microscope. When a tiny yeast cell lands on a piece of dough, it begins to multiply
at a very fast speed and within a short time it turns into trillions of cells. These cells
cause a chemical reaction that breaks down the dough and releases carbon dioxide.
These bubbles of carbon dioxide are what make the dough so large and fluffy.
The yetzer horah works in the very same way as yeast cells. At first one can’t see
him but once you let him gain entry, then within a short period of time he multiplies
and causes great destruction. Sometimes he works by getting us to watch something
which is forbidden for only a short period of time which soon gets longer and longer.
Before we know it, our time is up and our Torah and mitzvos have suffered.
Just before Moshiach is about to come, the yetzer horah has created some of the
biggest time wasters in history. Even if TV and the Internet had no filth at all and was
kosher, the amount of time it wastes is astronomical. We start off by thinking that we
will watch only one short program, but soon it multiplies into hours, days, weeks,
and months. Once the yeast cell has landed on the dough, there is no stopping it
from turning the dough into chometz. Once we have lost time, it can never be made
up. Time is irreplaceable. Chometz can never be changed back into matzah. Perhaps
that’s why the chachomim say that chometz sybolizes the yetzer ho’rah.
The problem with slavery is that it takes a person’s time away, and instead of
doing as we wish, one is forced to serve his master. Freedom is when we are not
enslaved to things that waste our time and we can use our time to serve Hashem
rather than others.