pesach message 5770

PESACH MESSAGE 5770

Dear CIKB and Friends,

The Holiday of Passover is upon us yet the days of the holiday are not to be viewed as memorial of an ancient event that occurred in the past; the glorious and miraculous exodus of our people from slavery by G-d from ancient Egypt towards freedom and acceptance of the divine law. Rather it is meant to reactivate that very same event for us to relive in the present. More so our Sages teach us that not only during the Holiday of Passover is there the power to relive exodus but we can and must experience exodus from Egypt and accepting the responsibility of observance of the Torah and it laws each and every day of our lives.

How do we accomplish this? For even on the very night of the holiday itself....it seems to be an event that happened years ago and all we have left today are the rituals and discussions of lessons to be learnt but not an actual exodus from Egypt. To answer this let us look at the beginning of each and every day when we awake and still lay in bed.
The moment we open our eyes before even washing our hands and descend from bed we say:

“I thank you G-d, King who is everlasting who returned my soul to me with compassion; great is your faithfulness” .

A bit later in the synagogue when we begin the morning prayers, we say in the morning blessing;

"Blessed are you G-d who is King of the world who is “matter asurim” releases those who are bound".

When we sleep we are like bound, hands and feet unable to move, when g-d returns our soul and we open our eyes and realize we are alive again, we thank g-d and bless Him for releasing us from the confinement of sleep. Exile is compared to sleep and waking up is similar to exodus and redemption. During sleep though we are alive and all our facilities are in operation their full powers are hidden. The mind too, is not in our control and all sorts of irrational fears and ideas take over. The idea of awakening is not only physically getting up and leaving the binds of sleep but awakening and reaching your full potential.

Upon waking up every morning from sleep, we experience a personal exodus. But it is not only from the sleep of the body but of the soul and mind set as well that we must awake. The idea of exodus is to leave behind all of our preconceived notions, emotions, fixed actions and hard to die habits that limit us from being able to reach our true potential and self. Though we indeed are all good and do much good deeds however looking back in life, how many of us can truly say we have grown over the years? That we have lived our life to its fullest potential. What is holding us back? Do we still have that old chip on our shoulder; still blaming others and taking no responsibility for our own actions? Why can we not forgive; not G-d nor our fellow Man? Are we still children who have not yet left our mother’s womb? Did not G-d give us freedom to choose?

On the Holiday of Pesach and especially during the Seder we are empowered for the year to be able to “Pesach”; leap over and above, all that which holds us back! To become a better person, better Jew and better you. More specifically to study more Torah, pray with better concentration and devotion, to do more acts of kindness and love for another Jew. Over all to become that which G-d really desires of us and to do so with joy!

To conclude our sages say: on the month of Nissan we were redeemed and on the month of Nissan we will be redeemed again”. Amen

with best wishes for a happy, kosher and sweet Pesach

y winner and family