Just a few days ago we witnessed the tiny sliver of the new moon of Nissan, the First Month on the Biblical Calendar, the Month of New Beginnings and now we are on the final countdown to Passover and find ourselves in a world that seems to have been turned upside down.
Indeed our world is a troubled world…currently in dire straits, both at home and abroad.
Along with the struggle for many of us to simply to keep our heads above water while maintaining our faith, many of us will be preparing and reflecting upon Passover while others may be asking the question… in light of our current situation is it even relevant for us today? The answer is a resounding YES! Let’s take a moment to reflect on a few questions and to review a bit of background that will enable us to better understand the powerful message of this ancient festival…a message not only for us asa global community, but also for us as individuals. And in so doing, hopefully we will be able to discover more of those hidden sparks beneath the surface!
What is the Connection Between the Moon’s Renewal and the Egyptian Exodus from Mitzrayim?
The connection is of course PASSOVER, the Festival of our Redemption and a time of New Beginnings! But in order to make it our own, we must bring it down to a personal level…but how you may ask, do we accomplish this?
We begin by taking a step back in time to that very first Passover which took place over 3500 years ago and strive to put ourselves into the mindset of those Hebrew slaves who were in bondage in the land of Egypt or Mitzrayim… but as we do, we must also take a deep look within ourselves in order to discover our own personal Mitzrayim and the things in our lives which keep us in bondage…and then we must take a step of faith forwards as did the Children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. They had only just begun their journey when they met their first obstacle.
With their backs to the sea and the mighty army of Pharaoh in close pursuit, it looked as though they had met their demise…yet against all odds, the sea opened and a path through it revealed itself to them!
They were afforded a miracle by the Gracious Hand of HaShem, for He had a purpose for them to fulfill, just as He has a purpose for each of us today! As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory taught, we only see the Providence of HaShem as we look backwards, but we must live our lives forwards each day regardless of what we might be facing either personally or as a community.
This month has been designated by HaShem as a month of New Beginnings. With this concept in mind, let us go backwards and pick up at the Beginning…to the time when HaShem first began creating our world…
Back to the Beginning – Beresheit 
Going all the way back to the story of Creation, we read in Beresheit, Genesis 1:14, “And G-d said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years.” The Hebrew word used here for sign is ot. An ot is a stamp, a seal, a reminder to help us keep in touch with our Creator. In His infinite wisdom HaShem knew that we would need many signs, otot… many reminders to enable us to remain close to Him. Through these signs, He continually calls us to Himself in covenant relationship. One such sign is the new moon that appears in the night sky at the beginning of every new month.
The Mo’edim, Mikra Kodesh – The Festivals, Holy Convocations
Not only does HaShem give us many otot, signs, He also gives us special times that we are to meet with Him. We see that HaShem placed the lights in the firmament of heaven, not only for signs, but also for seasons. The Hebrew word used here for seasons is mo’edim or festivals. We read in Leviticus 23:2 that that these festivals are called “Feasts of HaShem, Mikra Kodesh or Holy Convocations. HaShem refers to these festivals as “My feasts.” When we come together with kavanah, heart felt intent, to celebrate His feasts at His appointed times, His mo’edim, we bring honor to Him and He blesses us with His Divine Presence as He draws us close to Him. In His infinite love He provides us with many opportunities to be drawn and re-drawn over and over again into holy relationship with Him.
The Sabbath was the first festival that HaShem made holy, kadosh. (Leviticus. 23:1-3).The Feast or Festival of Passover (Pesach) and Unleavened Bread is the next. (Leviticus 23:4-5). In Exodus 12, we are given the account of the very first Passover, a wonderful festival that we are to celebrate under the light of the full moon from year to year.
What is the Message of Passover?
The Midrash, an ancient commentary on the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), gives us this enlightening interpretation regarding the Pesach offering: “Draw out and take for yourselves sheep for your families and kill the Pesach offering” (Shemot, Exodus 12). In other words, it says, withdraw your hands from idolatry, take for yourselves, sheep, slaughter the gods of the Egyptians and make a Pesach offering (Yalkut Bo 206).
Idolatry can take many forms, but the bottom line is that it keeps us in bondage.
The message of Pesach is freedom, redemption, new birth, new life, moving from darkness into light…but not without a price. Our ancestors of old paid a price, first when they were enslaved in Egypt, (Hebrew Mitzrayim), and countless times thereafter throughout history. The enslavement, which can involve both the physical and spiritual, continues to this day…both for the Jewish people and those that have attached themselves to them and to HaShem, the One G-d and Creator and to His Torah.
Many of us have spent our lives with false beliefs and fears which have in the past entrapped us, strangled, and entangled us. Then we found Torah, Baruch HaShem, and we were set free! Yet the struggle continues as oftentimes we have carryovers that unconsciously seep into our newfound Torah faith.
Pesach, the Festival of our Freedom, sends us a message to wake up, to remember…to look within ourselves and reflect upon what is holding us captive…and then to take a step forward and become free…the promise of freedom is right at our doorstep, but it is up to us to release ourselves…but how? We must with bitachon (trust) take the plunge like the Children of Israel did…take the plunge into the sea and follow the path through it…not around it!
Mitzrayim – Breaking Out – The Big Challenge!
Rabbi Donnel Katz teaches that we are in exile…and this is not merely a physical exile but rather a spiritual one. When we are in exile, he explains, we are not totally conscious…it is as if we are on auto pilot… and unaware of it…we are living in a state where we are consumed by fears and false pretenses.
We are actually double–bound when we are in this condition. The Hebrew word for Egypt is Mitzrayim, which means a narrow constricted place. It is spelled with a double mem, a letter which in the beginning of the word is slightly open, but at the end of the word it is completely closed, as if to indicate that once we enter this place, we are trapped!
This is the challenge…we need to break out! Again we ask ourselves the question, but how do we break out? HaShem says that He brought us out to bring us in…to bring us in not only into the Land, but into connection and relationship with Him because His ultimate purpose is to shechan… to dwell within us…in our midst. In Exodus 25:8, we read HaShem’s promise to His people, וְעָשׂוּ לִי, מִקְדָּשׁ; וְשָׁכַנְתִּי, בְּתוֹכָם “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”
This sanctuary goes beyond a physical building for it is to be a sanctuary that we build within ourselves…a sacred place for Him to dwell.
We each have a purpose, but in the day to day living of our lives, we often forget who we are, and what is really important. We need a wakeup call from time to time and for some of us, that wake-up call comes with a jolt when we realize that we have either reached or are coming to the point of reaching rock bottom…it feels as if everything has come crashing down upon us!
As difficult as these times are, they may actually be a blessing because it is in this condition that we are often forced to come to grips with issues within ourselves that we may have been unwilling to face…and it is at this point that we have no choice but to meet them head on!
It is as if we have hit a wall…it may not be a wall of water like the wall that faced the Children of Israel but it appears to be an impenetrable wall nonetheless…a wall that may have arisen either due to circumstances we feel that have been beyond our control or due to a wall of our own making.
Surprisingly this juncture in our lives may prove to be the first step in waking us up out of our auto pilot state of mind.
I personally believe that this step is one that is essential to our growth for it gives us the opportunity to discover more of those hidden sparks beneath the surface…the ones deep within ourselves that may need to be reignited, and those within one another that we may have missed…all of these and more…the sparks within life itself, sparks that we are given the opportunity to discover over and over again on our journey.
This process is unique and manifests itself differently in all of us. Yet what we must remember is that we each have a destiny, a Divine purpose, given by our Creator that we can tap into. We can easily become lost in our comfort zones or consumed by our negative thought patterns and habits that have become second nature…habits that entrap us and inhibit our growth…and cause us to lose our way and forget who we are and who we were created to become…like little bits of leaven in the cracks and crevices of our hearts they need to be uncovered and removed.
Cleaning out the Leaven-Chametz
HaShem has gifted us with this mo’ed, this Divine appointment during the Season of Passover, not only to meet with Him, but also to enrich our lives and give us hope by calling to our remembrance the ancient message of redemption and deliverance that has come down to us today through the stories of generations past… but it takes some preparation on each of our parts in order that we may embrace and experience it…preparation that is both physical and spiritual.
When the time came for the Children of Israel to leave Egypt, they had to leave in haste and there was no time for their bread to rise. Prior to this, they were given explicit instructions. One instruction was to clear away all the leaven from their homes and to eat only unleavened bread, matzah, from the evening of the 14th day of the First Month until the evening of the 21st day…a full seven days (Exodus 12:15-20).
All over the world today, we find the Jewish people and those who have attached themselves to HaShem and Torah cleaning their houses, to one degree or another, in an attempt to search for and rid themselves of any bits of leaven, chametz, hiding here, there and everywhere so as to honor this Torah injunction and to prepare themselves for the yearly anniversary celebration of redemption.
Chametz, say the rabbis, represents the swelling of ego and can correspond spiritually to corruption or to anything that can enslave us. The Chasidic masters teach that we therefore want to rid ourselves of this chametz and eat flattened matzah instead. So as we search for the physical leaven in our houses, we are encouraged to do an innermost search into our hearts and souls as well and endeavor to rid ourselves of anything that enslaves us and causes a separation between us and our Creator.
In the coming days as we continue to prepare our hearts and our homes for this awesome Season of Pesach, may we think on these things and remember that it is a mo’ed, a Divine appointment with our Creator set from the beginning of time!
The Celebration of Passover – Past, Present and Future – More to come in Part Three!
by Elisheva Tavor aka Betty Tabor Givin
