Pesach

Pesach is a time to leave behind our old assumptions about life and move forward. It is a time of renewal and revival. This Passover has me thinking about those themes, about liberation and bondage, freedom and duty.

I’m thinking about those themes I suppose because for the first time ever I’m leading our family’s Seder, that’s right it’s all on me, I’ve had a month to prepare… so naturally we’re a day away and I’m just starting to get my thoughts in order. In my defense I’ve had other things to do, not the least of which involves getting ready to move to a new city and start a new life. I’m excited to do that but now I need to turn my back on my own personal Exodus and get down to business.

Pesach is about my peoples liberation from the land of Egypt (Mitzriem in Hebrew) Egypt represents constriction, narrowness of thought and inability to see beyond our physical natures. Egypt was a physical culture, they’re understanding of the movements of the stars in the heavens is unrivaled even to this day. They were a people who knew and trusted their knowledge of the physical world. We as Jew’s know that the physical world is a constricting places, that if we only focus on what we see, hear, taste, touch, etc we’re missing out on many important aspects of life.

We reject the idea that the world is simple, that understanding is always reasonable, that everything has a solution. This time of year is a time when our tradition forces us to think about those ideas and to recognize the importance of that which is beyond our understanding.

That is one idea, another is that god brought us out of the slavery of Egypt, only to burden us with a new kind of slavery, mainly the acceptance of the Torah as binding and the duty to uphold it as far as our knowledge of it understands it as best as we can. So we were liberated only to be made slaves once again.

This is a powerful idea. After all we all want freedom; we all desire to make our own decisions and to do whatever we want when we want to. That is what we traditionally think of as freedom. The Torah rejects that idea. Instead supplementing it with the idea that freedom is the right to choose your own master that freedom is in many ways an illusion. That we all serve other things, other people, other ideas. That no matter how hard we try, we are not free. So in accepting the Torah, in rejecting Egypt we’re given our freedom.

Those are a few of my thoughts on Passover for this year. We are given a unique opportunity every year at this time to contemplate these themes. To see beyond what we thought was real or even possible and choose what we want out of the next year. It’s a gift, may we all be blessed this year to see beyond our old assumptions and accept our own unique missions in this world.

Shalom...Next Year in Jerusalem.