For the past couple of weeks, I have watched my wife, like
many Jewish women who clean for Pesach, who make a Seder (or two) act as if
they are not only slaves in Egypt but slaves in their respective homes.
With a sick cleaning lady, my wife had even more aggravation and cleaning to do
than normal, as she scrambled to find some extra help. As time slowly ticked
away towards the First Night of Pesach, my wife would look up from what she was
cutting, mixing, cooking or cleaning and wonder aloud, “How will this ever get
done?” In other moments of anxiety, she would exclaim, “I am so far behind my
schedule!”. Yet my wife managed to get everything done. Granted if we were really slaves in Egypt, I
think she, like so many Jewish Women would have been too exhausted to leave!
Indeed the first two days of Pesach focus upon our bondage in Egypt and our
preparations for Yetzitat Mitzrayim and eventual freedom as symbolized by the
Sedarim. However Pesach is an eight festival. Certainly it makes the beginning
of the festival should focus upon our national experience of slavery and the
immediate moments that led to our ancestors freedom. Once B’nai Yisroel left
Egypt and began making their way toward The Reed Sea (The Yam Suf), they were free. They were free to travel, free to
worship, and free to serve God. Yet, the process of becoming a free people was
still in its nascent stages.
Now we have entered into the intermediate days of
Pesach, commonly referred to as Chol Moed. On this Shabbat, Shabbat Chol HaMoed
Pesach, our focus begins to shift from the Yetziat
Mitzrayim, the Exodus from Egypt, to B’nai Yisroel’s return to the land
that God promise to our Patriarchs. The language has subtly shifted from
leaving slavery and entering into freedom to leaving our exile and returning to
our covenantal home. We see this in our reading of Shir HaSHirim the Song of
Songs. While the text is clearly about the Springtime love of a young man and
woman; ChaZaL, our Sages of Blessed
Memory, explain that Shir HaSHirim is a Metaphor for this mutually very new and
loving relationship between God and B’nai Yisroel. This is a love that has been
renewed and this is a love in which both return to each other. Likewise the
Haftorah, from the Prophet Ezekiel (37:1-14), also focus upon B’nai Yisroel’s
return from Babylonian exile to its covenantal land.
Ezekiel does not focus upon the intensely loving
relationship between God and the B’nai Yisroel. However he does focus upon
slavery as another form of exile and redemption from exile as the ultimate form
of liberation from slavery. Ezekiel lived before and after the destruction of
the Beit HaMikdash HaRishon, the First Holy Temple. It his here in this
Haftorah, that Ezekiel shares with the people his prophesy of the “Dried Bones”
that are in the land. Ko Amar Adoshem
Elokim L’Atzamot HaEilah Hinei Ani Mavi
Vachem Ruach Vichyitem – Thus say the
Eternal God to those bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you
shall live (Ez.37:5). From a literal perspective, Ezekiel is prophesying
that God will bring these bones, the thousands of Jews that perished in the
destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple, back to life. These bones will
experience the ultimate a return from exile; they will return from death to
life. However Judaism doesn’t generally subscribe to re-incarnation or a
physical life after a physical death. Rather Ezekiel’s prophecy invokes a very
powerful symbol. Slavery, in its ultimate and most devastating form is
spiritual slavery. Spiritual slavery is a function of being exiled from God,
exiled from that fundamentally loving relationship based upon a covenant. When
we are exiled from God, when we are spiritually afar from God, we are
spiritually lifeless. We are only bones. We are not human. To be human means to
be close to God for we are created B’Tzelem
Elokim – in the image of God.
We all experience spiritual slavery yet our own
personal redemption; our moving closer to God’s presence is a direct function
of God breathing Ruach HaKodesh –
his Holy Spirit into our Neshama. This occurs through Study of
Torah. This occurs through prayer. This occurs by engaging in Gemilut Chasadim,
by giving Tzedakah, and by Bikur Cholim
– visiting the sick. This occurs by making the Jewish community, a more
learned, and a more caring community and less
enslaved by the greed, selfishness and
arrogance.
Peace,
Rav
Yitz
No comments:
Post a Comment