After his prayer, Rabbi Alexandri said the following:May it be Your will, Lord our God,that You station us in a lighted corner and not in a darkened corner,and do not let our hearts become faint nor our eyes dim.Some say that this was the prayer that Rav Hamnuna would recite, and that after Rabbi Alexandri prayed, he would say the following:Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before Youthat our will is to perform Your will, and what prevents us?
On the one hand, the yeast in the dough, the evil inclination that is within every person;
and the subjugation to the kingdoms on the other.
May it be Your willthat You will deliver us from their hands, of both the evil inclination and the foreign kingdoms,
so that we may return to perform the edicts of Your will with a perfect heart.
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The reason for distancing leaven seems to be explained in two ways. The first way is according to Rabbi Alexandri who said (Berakhot 17) “We want to do Your will, but the leaven in the dough prevents us,” and in this approach we have explained above the verse All leaven and all honey you shall not burn in the portion of Vayikra, see there. And regarding this it is stated here it is most holy, like the sin offering and like the guilt offering. For through the slaughtering of the sacrifice, a person slaughters his evil inclination and it will be sought but is no more, therefore the meal offering also comes clean of leaven. However, the two loaves of Shavuot specifically come leavened because if not for the evil inclination, those below would not need the Torah more than those above, as with this argument Moses defeated the angels, saying, “Is there an evil inclination among you, etc.” (Shabbat 89a). Furthermore, the existence of the evil inclination is necessary, and without it a person would not build a house nor marry a woman. And in the place of Torah, there is no concern that it might breach its boundaries, for the Torah is the antidote to it.