This week we continue the focus on the theme of freedom in the context of Passover. Using the seder mnemonic as steps toward spiritual freedom is this week's word of Torah. The photo evokes the crossing of the sea. The newsletter will take a 3 week break and be back on May 9th. Hag Sameah! michael (michaelstrassfeld.com; mjstrassfeld@gmail.com)
A word of Torah: Journey to Freedom Through the Steps of the Seder
Kadesh: We begin with a sense of holiness, not just the holiness in the world but most importantly the holiness found within. Each of us has a spark of the divine which cannot be extinguished.
Urhatz: We cleanse our hands from the tum’ah, the impurity of the Coronavirus and the paralysis of fear.
Karpas: The green of spring reminds us that renewal is always possible. We dip the hopes of spring into the salt water of current strife and loss.
Yahatz: We break that which seems whole because only by recognizing the chains that hold us back will we be able to move forward.
Magid: Confronting the broken, we tell our story. Ve-khol ha-marbeh/whoever expands that story, making it more inclusive, more open-hearted, more real, and more forgiving is to be praised.
We tell of the four expressions of freedom
Freedom from fear
Freedom to begin anew
Freedom from want
Freedom to care
Rahtzah: Over this second washing, we say a berakhah. We bless our hands by reaching out to help those in need as it says with a strong hand and an outstretched arm you will help lift others out of Egypt.
Motzi matzah: We need to find/motzi the matzah. To discover that just those middot/qualities, which we considered our bread of affliction keeping us in mitzrayim---just those qualities could help us leave. They become the matzah that we carry on our shoulders, no longer a burden but a symbol of redemption.
Maror: We taste the bitterness of this very moment. For the reality is we never completely leave Egypt nor make it to the Promised Land. We are always on the way. It is in the seeking not the finding that life is lived. Yet, having tasted matzah, we are better equipped to confront the bitterness that is our lot.
Korekh: The deeper truth is that there is no slavery and no freedom distinct from each other. There is only a deep oneness underlying the universe. They are not separate realms. Thus, we take matzah and maror and eat them together, no longer imagining that we can separate them. Korekh means to embrace---to embrace all of life.
Shulhan Orekh: Life is a table set before us. Having tasted freedom, we are called to bring it to others in the world.
Tzafun: We began the seder with matzah as the bread of affliction. It then becomes the symbol of the Exodus and freedom. Finally as the afikomen, it points to the messianic future to be announced by Elijah waiting to throw open wide the doors of humanity.
Barekh: we are grateful for the blessings of our lives and even more God’s promise to Abraham “heyeh berakhah” live your life so as to be a blessing to others.
Hallel: we join with Miriam as we open our hearts and lift our voices in song—it is the only way to cross the sea.
Nirtzah: Then our lives will be lives lived closer to our will (ratzon), meaning we will become the person that deep down we really desire to be.
And we say: Be-shanah ha’ba’ah/Next year let the heavenly Jerusalem come down to earth.
The intention is to use the seder mnemonic (above) to move toward freedom. Use the Omer period to strive to be ready to re-receive the Torah that is essentially about freedom as the Sefat Emet taught (see this week's additional reading). We will stand again at Sinai in seven weeks.
Song:
My father born in Stanislav in the Ukraine sang at our seder this version of the seder song ki lo na'eh
