So we all want to get beyond our limitations, feelings of constriction... Sense of being less than all we can be...but how can we do it? How can we get out of Egypt? It seems to me the first step is believing that we can. There is a great story about a chassid of Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who needed to get to Lublin, but had no papers... He approached his Rebbe, who after meditation and prayer handed him a passport.. which opened for him many doors and borders...but was in fact an empty sheet of paper. The story has an updated version, Reb Shlomo Carlebach met the nephew of the person to whom it happened, ..another chassid needed to get from Poland to Germany in 1935, and he approached the Munkatcher Rebbe... who also , inspired by the story of Reb Levi Yitzchak, gave him a blank piece of paper...drenched in prayer, hope trust and faith... this passport too opened doors and boundaries and this chassid also went past border control. This Pesach we have a chance to go past our border controls, we can get out of Egypt and the "headquarters" for this transformation happens at the sedar... "Kol B'Seder" many Israelis say, and it is so true...it all happens at the seder.
Traditionally it is understood that the power or personality most responsible for keeping us in the bondage of Egypt is Pharoh who corresponds to the power of Ego. The prophet Ezekiel describes Pharoh as "the great crocodile who crouches in his river and proclaims"My river is mine and I made it myself"". Rebbe Nachman teaches that Pharoh, whose name is spelt using the same hebrew letters as the hebrew word for neck.."Oreph" is connected with the back of the neck. "Mitzraim" the hebrew word for Egypt is related to the idea of "Meitzar Ha Garon".. the limitations or constrictions of the throat . Rebbe Nachman teaches that Pharoh had three servants , the butler, the baker and the butcher... each one representing a different level of indulgence in the physical world: ...... food, drink and the passions of emotion.... and each corresponding to a different part of the neck, the trachea, (wine stewart) the esophagus ( the butler) and the veins ( the butcher) . When these "servants " serve the egoistical goals of our egos (Pharoh), they trap our speech and consciousness in chains, (Egypt) ; when our eating, drinking and emotion serve Hashem, our neck serves us and carries the capacity for holy speech up from our purified hearts to our mouth via our neck..to enable us to connect to the idea of Eretz Yisroel which is connected with prayer, holy speech and a belief in miracles. Through connecting with Hashem via our prayer, and through the power of Emunah (faith) , we can live in a transcendent reality, a reality of Eretz Yisroel which is a reality not bound by the limitations of nature, but operating within a different set of parameters... a world of intension, a world of faith, trust and miracle.Of course as the Rebbes of Lubavitch have taught us, we need to make where-ever we are in the world into a place that has the values of Israel; a belief in prayer, a belief in the power of holy speech and a belief that the physical world is really a "plastic" reality... it can be changed at any moment... it exists only through the articulations and intent of Hashem... it can change at any moment.... and so can we.
A couple tools for the seder are:
4 Cups of Wine:
At the seder we believe the saying of the sages, "nichnas yayin yozer sod"... the wine enters in, the secrets go out... which secret gets revealed... the secret of who you really are in your liberated self!
Matzah
Matzah and Chometz in hebrew are spelt almost exactly the same.. just the matzah has an open "hei" and the chomeitz has a closed "ches"... all the other letters are shared... the opening for G-d... makes all the difference!
... all the other letters are shared... the opening for G-d... makes all the difference!
It is not so clear who authored the poem which follows..., either Ernest Holmes or Saphire Rose.... in any event I think its profound and fits into our Pesach theme very wonderfully....
"She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.
She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go… She didn’t search the scriptures. She just let go.
She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go.
She didn’t analyze whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.
No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.
There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore."
Have a wonderful Seder and a great Yom Tov!
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