Passover
Passover is the pivotal event in Jewish history, mentioned numerous times in the Torah. The Ten Commandment’s opening line is (Exodus 20:2): "I am the Lord your G-d who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
On Passover, we celebrate the birth of the Jewish people in a miraculous delivery from Egyptian bondage. The birth of the Jewish people during the exodus, like the birth of the very first born Jew Isaac, came about in a totally miraculous way.
The Egyptians worshipped nature. Man's highest ideal was to become beatific and animal - like. The ultimate goal in life was to reach nirvana, to achieve serenity and peace of mind. Man worshipped the animal and strived to become totally in tune with nature, avoiding conflict and struggle at all cost. Consequently, the Egyptians denied any belief in absolutes, in a sense of mission, in distinguishing between right and wrong, and in the principles of compassion.
The foundation of Judaism, however, is a belief in miracles and a belief in man's purpose and destiny, to change, to transform and ultimately to transcend nature.
The Jewish people view struggle and conflict as positive. "Man was created for hard work." (Job 5:7) Man is unique because he can look upward and transcend himself, aspiring to something greater than himself. While an animal walks on all four and never sees the sky, man possesses the unique ability to walk on two legs and to be able to look toward heaven. Just as the heavens always remains beyond our reach, man can never be content and is constantly restless, struggling to transcend his natural limitations while striving to attain even greater heights.
G-d created angels and animals fully formed. Once animals reach maturity, there are no surprises and the rest of their lives are predictable. As man reaches puberty, however, he has a lifetime full of surprises to look forward to. His submerged potential yearns for redemption, yearns to emerge and surface through proper nurturing, education and sweat and toil.
G-d created the world of nature in a raw and unfinished state. G-d chose man to become an equal partner in creation by developing its raw material and by actualizing its full potential. Man achieves genuine freedom and true liberation when he fulfills his mission of redeeming the world’s inner potential through G-d's blueprint for life, as the Rabbis (Ethics of Our Fathers 6:2) state: "Who is a free man, he who occupies himself with Torah."
Consequently, after being in Egypt for two hundred and ten years and in severe bondage for eighty six years, instead of taking a well-deserved vacation, the Jewish people went straight to work, as G-d told Moses (Exodus 3:12), "When you will take this nation out of Egypt they will serve G-d on this mountain (Mount Sinai)." Because it’s only through great effort that one can attain true redemption.
The focus of the Seder is the education of the child. The foundation of the Jewish people is education. Children are like seeds that need much love and nurturing, toil and sweat, in order for them to reach fruition and in order for them to yield their spiritually luscious fruit.
"In each generation, every person is obligated to see himself as if he had personally come out of Egypt." (Talmud Pesachim 116b).
Egypt is a state of mind. The Hebrew name for Egypt, Mitzrayim means boundaries and limitations. The exodus from Egypt signifies man's ability through tremendous effort and struggle to transcend his own limitations and to reveal his true potential.
The Torah calls Pesach the 'Festival of Matzot' because we are commanded to eat Matzot and to rid ourselves of Chometz -- all bread and leavened food products. Both chometz and matzah consist of flour and water. The difference, however, is that while chometz rises, matzah remains flat. While chometz symbolizes ego, arrogance, pride, and self-satisfaction, matzah symbolizes the qualities of self-nullification, humility and an openness to change.
Humility is the foundation of all spiritual growth. Only by sensing that the status quo doesn't do justice to our inner potential are we motivated to seek out, to search and to begin the journey to self discovery.
The holiday of Passover reminds us how the Jewish people took a giant leap forward. They made a quantum leap from extreme physical and spiritual bondage to the loftiest levels of spiritual and physical freedom.
The redemption of Pesach proves that we are not victims of our environment and that we are essentially free to choose and to act independently. At any moment we are free to make a quantum leap above the gravitational pull of natural circumstances and environmental influences and act in a way that is consistent with the essential spark of G-dliness that is located at the very core of our being.
