Perspective
Thoughts on Pesah 2020
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On most years, I speak
from the pulpit at the end of Arbit on the first night of Pesah, briefly reviewing
the various requirements for eating and drinking at the Seder. Finishing the
definitions of kazayit and revi’it, I remind everyone that the
importance of these shiurim notwithstanding, the primary focus of this
night is on the shared involvement of all family members in the reenactment of yessiat
Missrayim. In other words, the measurements of the food and drinks do
not represent a “means to themselves,” but rather make up the necessary
ingredients for an exalted experience. Let us, this year, delve deeper into
what that means.
The task of
sublimating our human desires into spiritual realities is one of Judaism’s central
challenges. Malbim, the great 19th Century exegete, likened our
life’s duty to that of the alchemists of old, who sought to transform base
metals into precious silver and gold. “Man, throughout his life, must undertake
the process of alchemy to change [his physical self] into a transcendent
spiritual entity,” he wrote, “This process is achieved through thoughts and
actions, for through them, [man] can separate from physicality and become a
transcendent spiritual entity.”[1]
It has long been
noted that the tunes of many of the traditional Syrian pizmonim were
adapted from non-Jewish songs of festivity and passion. In addition to a
broader halakhic analysis regarding the permissibility of doing so, several
rabbinic authorities pointed to a particular beauty in the transfer of the
melodies from a “realm of impurity” to one of “sanctity.” [2]
By channeling tunes once composed in praise of hedonistic passion to a context
of divine yearning, many of the Syrian pizmonim characterize this
specific ideal of our worldly endeavors.
Jewish mystical
tradition furthermore maintains that God’s light shines most in our world of
relative darkness, in contrast to the Upper Worlds of manifest light. “The purpose of the soul entering this body is
to display her powers and actions in this world, for she needs an instrument,” the Medieval kabbalist R. Moshe
de León
z”l wrote, “If she is not fulfilled both above and below, she is not
complete.”[3]
R. Adin Steinsaltz likewise explained that “matter can be a vessel to contain
the Infinite, which the spirit, with its greater vulnerability, cannot be.”[4]
I have always felt that
many of the missvot performed on the first nights of Pesah are exemplary
features of bringing forth holy sparks from a material world.
Why do we drink
four cups of wine at the seder? “The rabbis lived in a world where
people regularly drank wine at festive occasions, and those who could afford
it, even more regularly,” Joshua Kulp wrote. Basing himself on a scholarly
proposition that four cups of wine was once considered the appropriate quantity
of wine for a ritual celebration, Kulp suggested that the ritual role of the
cups familiar to us at the Seder is the Rabbis’ adaptation of an already
accepted practice of festive drinking.[5]
Our practice of structuring the Seder around the four cups, then,
represents the repurposing of drinking wine from an act of self-indulgence to
one of religious significance.
Our mention at the
Seder that one must state and explain the reasons for the missvot of Pesah,
massah and maror is likewise telling. HaRambam’s recording of this
law in the context of sipur yessiat Missrayim teaches that these foods must
be used as props for our colorful “restaging” of the Exodus from Egypt.[6]
It emerges, then, that food – the icon of pleasure-seeking – encounters
sanctity at the Seder.
“You can mend the
cosmos by anything you do – even eating,” the great kabbalist R. Yisshak Luria
(the Ari) z”l once remarked, “Do not imagine that God wants you
to eat for mere pleasure or to fill your belly…the purpose is mending.”[7]
The food at the Seder is transformed even beyond fulfillment of an eating-missvah;
it is entirely reappropriated to
serve as an entry-key into the transcendent experience of leaving Egypt.
Raising the massah and maror, pointing at them and mentioning their
significance transports us to a spiritual time and place far beyond that of our
present-day situation.
We are currently
living through a particularly turbulent time period. What relevant message can
we incorporate from this understanding of the Seder to our contemporary lives?
Perspective.
Consider the
context of our “relived” experience of freedom after more than two centuries of
servitude. Instead of madly storming into the open-access pleasures of the
world, we approach them with a careful search for latent sanctity. We
sensitively craft a general perspective that meets the challenges of a life of
freedom.
The lesson of
perspective is ever-important today. Open your eyes and search for the potential
positive that is nestled away in our world now transfixed on misery and gloom.
Discover the personal growth awaiting your solitude, realize the family members
awaiting your attention and find the suffering people awaiting your kindness.
Shift your perspective,
ignite the “sparks of light” from within, and let them radiate this world of utter
darkness.
[1] R. Meir Leibush b. Yehiel Mikhel
Wisser, Commentary of Malbim: Bemidbar 19:1. Cited and translated by R.
Aryeh Leibowitz, The Neshamah: A Study of the Human Soul (Nanuet, NY,
2018), pg. 161.
[2] See R. Jacob S. Kassin,
Introduction to Shir UShevahah Hallel VeZimra (New York, NY, 1964), pg.
9-10. See, as well, e.g., R. Ovadia Yosef, Yehaveh Daat vol. 2
(Jerusalem, IS, 1978), no. 5 and Yabia Omer vol. 6 (Jerusalem, IS,
1986), no. 7, and R. Meir Mazouz, Bayit Ne’eman vol. 1 (Bnei Brak, IS,
2015), no. 35. And for a brief English survey, see R. Shlomo M Brody, A
Guide to the Complex: Contemporary Halakhic Debates (New Milford, CT.
2014), pg. 174-176.
[3] R. Moshe de León, Sefer HaRimonim, ed. Elliot R. Wolfson (Atlanta,
GA, 1988), pg. 106.
[4] R. Adin Even-Israel
Steinsaltz, The Long Shorter Way: Discourses on Chasidic Thought (New
Milford, CT, 2014), pg. 255.
[5] Joshua Kulp, The Schechter
Haggadah: Art, History and Commentary (Jerusalem, IS, 2009), pg. 171-174,
and Shamma Friedman, Tosefta Atiqa Pesah Rishon (Ramat Gan, IS, 2002),
pg. 405-411. Listen to our class on this topic, “The Four Cups: A History,” at http://www.rabbiharari.com/2020/03/the-four-cups-history.html.
[6] HaRambam, Mishneh Torah:
Hilkhot Hamess UMassah 7:5. Listen to our class on this topic, “Pesah,
Massah & Maror,” at http://www.rabbiharari.com/2019/04/pesah-massah-maror.html.
[7] Translated by Daniel C. Matt, The
Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (New York, NY, 1995), pg.
149.