For
the past couple of weeks, I have watched my wife, like many Jewish women who
clean for Pesach, make a Seder, and act as if they are not only slaves in Egypt
but slaves in their respective homes. 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 day festival. With all the
preparations, all the cleaning, all the cooking and the resulting exhaustion,
it might be rather easy to lose focus on the last moments of our national 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 S (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
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