Letter from Shlomo Carlbach between Purim and Passover: What could be higher than Purim? |
ON BEING ENSLAVED. ON BEING LIBERATED.ON BEING FREE. “One is obligated to view him(her)self as if he(she) left (slavery) in Egypt” Reb Eliezer in The Passover Hagadah as quoted from Talmud Pesachim Imagination is a powerful tool. It enables one to transcend boundaries. It enables one who is imprisoned (physically or otherwise) to maintain hope. The only thing better than escaping via imagination is taking the next step and changing ones’ reality. If one can imagine, one can transform the images into reality.
form the acronym Shovavim, outline the process of becoming slaves, being enslaved, the transition into freedom and freedom’s multiple levels. The Ari (major mystic in Tzefat, Israel around 450 years ago) stated that these weeks are a time of personal liberation. The Passover Hagadah bids us to imagine ourselves as slaves in Egypt. The purposeis not merely to create a solidarity with our ancestors. The purpose of engaging in this imagery is to access our subconscious. It is not that our ancestors were slaves in Egypt but that our souls, the same souls which occupy our current bodies, inhabited the bodies of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. It’s not just that our ancestors were slaves. It’s not just that we were slaves. Accessing an historical understanding and appreciation of the Egyptian slavery and liberation is step one. Imaging ourselves as slaves is step two. Understanding our ancient selves as free people is step three. Understanding how we enslave ourselves today is step four. Honestly and fearlessly confronting ourselves for the purpose of personal growth is step five. “And it came to pass after a long time that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel groaned because of their subjugation and they cried out. And G*d heard their moaning and G*d remembered the covenant” Exodus ch.3 vs.23-24 In “ Zichron Zot”, the holy Chozeh of Lublin asks a rather poignant question. Why did they react only after the king’s death, why not beforehand? His answer, that the death of Pharaoh caused their eyes to open slightly which enabled them to see that they were being oppressed, reveals a profound understanding of the psychology of subjugation and suffering. We become complacent rather easily as we allow many aspects of our lives to enslave us. Throughout our lives we become involved with people and situations which are not in our best interests. These people or situations offer some, usually minimal, security. Attached to that security however is enslavement.
Our need for security is so great that we will redefine our real and beneficial needs in relationship to whatever minimal security is at hand. Once redefined, our new reality becomes predicated upon upholding our redefinition so as not to threaten our sense of security. We do this to the point that defending our minimal security becomes a focal point in our lives. We lose perspective sight of our greater picture. We act in a manner similar to constructing a building upon a poor foundation. Since the foundation is not strong enough to hold the weight of the structure, constant shoring up must be done to prevent the structures collapse. Our ancestors became slaves when they volunteered for pharaoh’s civic pride project, building new storage facilities as a precaution against future famines. The Jews, in a futile attempt to display their civic pride, volunteered with zeal. The Egyptians slowly ceased working which resulted in only Jewish volunteers remaining. The Jews allowed themselves to go from respected volunteers to working under coercion to enslavement. The need to prove themselves as good citizens caused them to lose sight of their selves. Instead of being servants to the Creator, The King of Freedoms, they became slaves to The Egyptian Pharoah, the King of Constricted Consciousness. (Mitzrayim the Hebrew word for Egypt stems from the word Metzar which means constricted. The Hebrew word Tzuris, which everybody knows means difficulties, is related.) We do not become enslaved to unhealthy people or situations instantaneously. It takes time. Slavery begins with accepting a faulty assumption and gradually spiraling downward. We remain blinded and enslaved until a catharsis arises. The death of Pharaoh was such a catharsis. Since we were slaves to this particular king, his death should have signified an end to the servitude. When the new king proved to be just as cruel as the old it was too late to resume complacency. The catharsis had already shocked the children of Israel into re-examining their situation. We cried to Hashem/G*d, who set into motion the mechanism for our liberation. Within our own lives we must also find a catharsis as the first step toward personal liberation. Only upon recognizing and acknowledging that our enslavement exists and that it could possibly end, can we actually allow the mechanism for our liberation to arise and effect us.
which is wrong. 3 - We sincerely desire to change that which is wrong. 4 - This time we really mean it. 5 - We recognize our limitations. 6 - We cry out to G*d. 7 - With G*d as partner and with G*d’s gift of inner strength and fortitude we work to reverse the downward spiral. Rabbi Shloime Twerski obm, of Denver, used to say: we humans will sacrifice a great deal of freedom for a little bit of security. Torahs from the Heart is sponsored by NISHMAT KOL CHAI--“innovative jewish solutions ” |
Dearest Friends, Our holy Rabbis called Purim "the Dawn" - the sun isn't rising yet but it's no longer night. It's in between, which is what makes dawn so special. According to our holy Rabbis it is the time when babies wake up and want to be nursed, the time when husband and wife wake up and want to be so close to each other- It is the time when the light of the Messiah is shining. It is a time when everyone dreams that today is the day of redemption. Anybody who has ever been up all night has tasted the awesome depth and sweetness of praying at dawn. Have you ever prayed by the Holy Wall at dawn? So Purim is the beginning of our redemption. We're waking up and being drunk with the joy of being Jewish. Dawn is still too dark; we don't really see each other. We only see with the eyes of our soul and my soul sees only G-d. On Purim I send out gifts but not face to face; this is how I let you know I see you with the eyes of my soul. That is why I love you so much. I am drunk with love for you. Then, for thirty days we prepare ourselves. The way I prepare myself is by realizing that I do not have the vessel (I am not capable) for redemption, what I must do is get rid of the old dirty vessels. We are living in a crazy world, everything is out of proportion and inflated like yeast bread, all puffed up. The matzoh is just water and flour, the way it really is. Cbometz is being puffed-up beyond proportion. On Pesach we change our dishes, everything is new. New vessels for a new light. We realize we were only slaves because we did not receive G-d's light with the right vessels. This is also true between other people and ourselves. On Pesach we have new vessels for each other's love. With the power of Pesache I am capable of loving you fully. The awakening is on Purim. Light that cannot be contained in vessels. Drunk. No limitations, no boundaries, no definition. On Pesach I have new vessels. My love has definition and clarity. I love you face to face. Is there anything greater than the love of children for their parents or parents for their children? Is there anything sweeter than the questions of children? Seder night begins with children asking us the deepest questions. And we don't really answer them, we just make the questions deeper; we are just telling children that we have the same questions all our lives. The most terrible thing is if we keep pretending to our children that we do know the answers. On Seder night we admit: I don't know either. But when Elijah the Prophet comes he will answer all the questions - no, he will not answer all the questions, but in his presence the questions will suddenly disappear. We have no vessels to feel the pain of homeless people. That is why we are afraid to let them into our house. There is no peace in the world because we don't have vessels for peace. Yet on Pesach, the night of redemption, I have vessels for the homeless and I invite them to my house. On Seder night, hopefully, I have vessels to be one with my children, and I will be capable of peace and love. Let it be this year that we will have vessels to feel at one with the world. There, is a matzoh of this world and there is a matzoh from heaven. The matzoh we eat at the beginning of the seder is matzoh from this world, matzoh of the earth. But at the end of the seder, when our children bring us a piece of matzoh, this is the matzoh from heaven. The matzoh which reaches so deep in us and makes us all into vessels to receive the light of Elijah, the light of redemption. Some of us don't even have vessels for our own souls. Do you know why we eat puffed-up bread? Why our lives are so puffed-up? It is because we cannot accept the sadness of the poverty of the bread in our lives, so we need to inflate it. During the Seder, our children steal the matzoh from us and bring it back to us later on. They are telling us, Gevalt! Are you holy. Parents! Do you know what you could be to your children? Each time we console our children, when we take care of them, we become their Elijah the Prophet. Each time we kiss our children we are bringing the world closer to the Messiah. Seder night we are giving over our Yiddishkeit to our children. Please be so careful to give over the best to our children! We so often don't teach our children because our Yiddishkeit has become puffed-up. So many people don't believe in Israel anymore because they found the aggrandized Israel. On Seder night we give over Yiddishkeit the way it really is. On Seder night we fix our poor children who are turned off by blown up Yiddishkeit. What a night, what a night of all nights! I wish you, brothers and sisters, the most glorious, divine Seder. Much love, Shlomo |
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