In another week, Pesasch. Most Jewish families, especially here in Israel, will come together, eat matzah, drink wine, and recite the hagada. Unfortunately, for many, it is nothing more than a ceremony, a recital of words that once might have been meaningful, but now don’t seem to have much application. That’s unfortunate, because understood correctly, the hagada takes us to the highest places. It makes the night come alive…
Some people make it come alive for themselves by making up their own hagada. Hagada is from the word, lehagid, meaning “to tell.” So, some people tell their own story of freedom. It has meaning, but it’s not the meaning of the night of Pesach, which is a reliving of the Jewish national moment, when we were freed from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, the “land of limitations.”
There are three or four main things to do on the night of Pesach, this year, March 29 (Monday). First and foremost, refrain from eating or using any leavened bread, cake, or other carbs made of grain, unless it is matza, or unleavened bread without yeast, baked within eighteen minutes of kneading. It’s a flat bread, without taste, without character, but full of spirituality. It’s symbolizes our state of ego-lessness on this night, when there is full revelation of G-dliness. Eating matza – lotsa matza – is an obligation on the first (and second, if you are outside of Israel) night of Pesach.
Second, drink four cups of wine. They symbolize our freedom – freedom from the personal and national limitations that prevent us from getting closer to the One above. While doing the above – eating matza and drinking wine – lean. Lean on a pillow to your left, because that’s what a free person does; he feels free to lean and relax. In our seder, things are crowded, so we lean on each other (men on men, women on women). There’s a lesson in that; we need each other. We need to rely on each other, no Jew can do everything himself or herself. So, lean on me, lean on your neighbor, lean on another Jew, til you get what you need…and be prepared to be leaned on, because you too have what to offer.
And finally, talk! The name of the holiday is Pesach; the peh (“mouth”) sach (“speaks”). So, talk it out – the exodus from Egypt was a momentous affair. In fact, you might say that it was traumatic. It was sudden and unexpected. So, talk it out, until you integrate it and understand it, take it fully inside. But, do so from within the – that’s where the light is hidden. By talking, you reveal the light. So much so, that once when the morning came, the sages continued talking about the exodus even though the time had come to pray. By them, it was daytime all night long, they brought down so much light they didn’t recognize the difference between night and day.
When you talk enough, you’ll realize the night is so high, you don’t have full grasp of what going on, spiritually. That’s one of the tricks of the hagada. It only looks like it’s explaining things; in reality, it’s asking things. It’s putting you into the position of being the asker. You think that you’re explaining to your child, your son. No, you are becoming the asker, the one who wants to know. And we are all children before the One above. So, eat, drink, and tell the story – and lean on me (another Jew) – because we all need each other to get the full impact of the events.
There’s much more here…if you want the details, go to our website, at http://www.jerusalemconnection.org/weekly This is one of those situations where the details will be very helpful…