During the period between now and Pesach, our focus will be on the inner, spiritual dimension of the Exodus.
The Haggadah says that "in every single generation, a person is obligated to to see himself as though he had personally come out of Egypt." Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger amplifies this and explains that every single day, each and every person is undergoing an Exodus from Egypt.
Pesach is the Torah's original new year festival. The Exodus can be seen as a vivid mindscape of the process of teshuvah, of self-repair and personal change. What is your "slavery", the bricks you are compelled to keep assembling? Who or what is the Pharaoh that keeps you in place? What is the sea that seems impassible, toward what promised land on the other side? Who or what might be your midwife, your Moshe, your Miryam -- the voice of hope and possibility even when you, or things around you, seem unchangeable?
Pharaoh may well be outside of you: in financial pressure, a terrible boss, an unhealthy relationship. But Pharaoh may be inside as well. Exodus 1: "A new king arose over Egypt, who was not aware….he said to his people: Let us apply our smarts about it…" Reb Nachman of Bratslav explains that Pharaoh is the force that opposes wider awareness in a particular way. It is the voice or the habit that keeps us hard at work only on the problems in life we can attack right now, with our cleverness. We solve them because they are easy to see and define. They are what Stephen Covey calls "urgent, but unimportant." They keep coming, and by solving them we are certainly doing something. But this Pharaoh can take up all of our time. If we notice this, we can begin to make room for another awareness. It was Pharaoh's own daughter, after all, who walked down to the river, and first became aware of the hidden basket that contained Moshe, and heard the infant voice of hope and possibility.
If you have not subscribed and would like to receive these each week directly by e-mail click here. Shabbat Shalom!
Comments