Passover Thoughts - part one

What I did not share at the Seder on Monday in PV... didn't really seem so important...

In the Hagadah we read that G-d took the Israelites out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Why both? In a d'var torah at the Neshama Minyan, Rabbi Daniel Greyber (of Camp Ramah in California) shared that the rabbis teach us that G-d's strong hand took us from slavery and that the outstretched arm kept us from going back. Nurturing and comforting us as we made our wayt through the desert, to Mount Sinai, and finally to eretz yirsael.

But, why did G-d need to keep us from going back? My teacher from WUJS, Rabbi Aubrey Isaacs, says that one can not complain about slavery unles they are free. Our ancestors had known nothing but slavery for generations and had grown comfortable with their place in life. The work they did was hard, but they knew no other. And, at the end of the day, they had food, water and shelter. When they left slavery they found themselves in a vast, desolate space. Homeless and undertain, many longed to return to Egypt where their lives held a comfortable understanding of what is to come. In the desert they were dependent on the leadership of Moses, who often disapeared for days at a time, to relay the word of G-d. G-d consistently provided water (through Miriam's well) and a daily provision of manna, but their lives held a continuous level of wandering and uncertainty. Many must have longed to return to the "comfort" of slavery in Egypt.

In an article in last weeks LA Jewish Journal, Reb Mimi Feigelson (my teacher at Lishma) wrote that hametz (food with leavening) and matzah can be likened to slavery and freedom. The process for making matzah may take no longer that 18 minutes from the second that the flour and water meet to the finished product. One second is the difference between matzah and
hametz.

The founder of the Chasidic movement, the Ba'al Shem Tov, taught that within each of us is our own internal hametz that presents itself as anger, pride, and arrogance, among other traits that we might not find desirable. The Hebrew word for Egypt - Mitzrayim - literally means "narrow place". We each have our own mitzrayim as well - the places where, within ourselves, we feel restricted.

The recollection of the exodus from Egypt is a time to also reflect on the plight of those who are enslaved around the world, as well as the enslavement that we feel from within ourselves and to our responsibilities. Too often we find ourselves caught up in the commonplace and routine of our own lives. We may - with our best intentions - strive to free ourselves of the chains that hold us to that which we feel confuned by. At times we are able to begin to take the help of a strong hand to break out of the slavery that we each feel - but it is so much easier to retreat back into the familiarity of that restriction than to truly free ourselves fro it. We need to remember that there is also an outstretched arm pulling us along as we journey through the desert in search of our own promised land.

Hag Sameach!