Hametz is Matzo 'Puffed up'

Exodus 33 - 34 - A Parasha about Pesach
34:18 - "You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread for 7 days..."

A commandment.

What does it mean to eat unleavened bread?

What is Hametz? Yeast. The thing that makes the bubbles and adds air to the bread. A fermenting process.

Meaning of Matzoh? Bread of affliction, bread of suffering, poverty and also the bread of freedom.

Ancient world Hametz not allowed in sacrifices - a symbol of decay or impurity, symbol of the evil inclination. "Stirs you up to do wrong"

Process to search for Hametz - and then to burn it. Then you say a prayer that you have gotten it out of your home and if there is any more it is like dust and not really there. It is a symbolic purification.

Hametz also has an image of puffed up by ego, pride. Why eat it at all? Not that we want to get rid of ego but we want to control them. So doing without for a week symbolizes our being able to discipline our behavior over our impulses.

Also custom of 'selling' the Hametz. They sell it to someone who is not Jewish. This is partly for economic reasons. For the merchant who deals in products with Hametz and also to donate to charity.

Relation of the word Hametz and Matzo - in Hebrew uses the same letters except for one:
Matzo - Mem Tzadi Hey and Hametz - Het Mem Tzadi. Only a tiny mark can change the hey to het .
Scientific difference: Matzo is made in 18 minutes - even one second more changes it to Hametz.

Teaching that Hametz is puffed up Matzo - Hametz is made from the same thing that Matzo. Hametz represents the ego that is puffed up. Not necessarily a bad thing but it is maybe "too much of a good thing". It is a balance between the soul and the ego.

The goal is to be able to control our ego and desires to make it serve for good.