PESACH
I am more of an errant Jew than one that strictly follows traditions.
Yet there are two Jewish celebrations which deeply move me: Yom Kippur and
Pesach. But if I had to choose which one is most sacred I would say that it is
Pesach
Pesach reminds that we are most of the time living in the land of the
Pharaoh. A narrow place (this is the meaning of the word Mitzraim which
is Egypt in Hebrew). Narrowed by education and hypnosis of the verb TO HAVE -
possessions of objects, money, people, jobs, degrees, fame, power, behaviors,
ideas, and so on - We are daily focused in measuring our losses and gains.
I think it is alright searching things that can give us comfort. As
humans this is a part of our lives. The only problem is to have all of our
lives submitted to win or lose. In other words: having the pharaoh dictating
over us.
Life is always pushing us towards growth. But we are stubborn. We are
attached to what we already know or are used to. We can only grow if we
displace from where we are and move towards a wider space. Our first movement
starts at our birth. From the womb which got narrow to a wider place: the
world.
There are many chances during our lives to be “born” again, to move, to
cross the great waters, to change, to leave spaces that became too narrow for
us.
Out of the “land of the pharaoh”, away from being slaves of possessions,
away from the dictatorship of the verb “to have” and that is moving towards the
Promised Land.
The verb to have is related to a physical spot on our anatomy: our stomachs,
a place where we fill, we accumulate.
The Promised Land is another possible kingdom where we can live and it
is ruled by the verb “TO BE”. It is a land related to the heart, a realm of our
deep identities (God in me). Note that as someone calls you: Hey you! You
generally answer: who me? We point to our chest, to our hearts. That’s where we
conjugate the verb “I am”.
Pesach is about a crossing: from the realm of our stomachs (to have) to
the realm or kingdom of our hearts (to be). WE can have another physical
metaphor: the diaphragm (the red sea to be crossed).
Celebrating
is gathering people that are asking themselves, all together, at the same time,
the same question. This is the force of a celebration. This is the importance
of celebration.
On
Pesach the question that can go together with the known question proposed by
the youngest at table (which represents the wisdom of “I know that I don’t
know”):”Why is this night so different from the other nights?”
The
question is: Who is your ruler? Your stomach (the Pharaoh) or your heart (God
in you)? “Are you so hypnotized by all that the Pharaoh offers that you have
lost the capacity of listening to your heart? How many plagues are you willing
to endure before moving towards a needed change? Are you moving in the
direction that your heart is pointing you?” That your heart is beckoning you?
OBS
- Another curiosity is that there is an interpretation that says that
Moses didn’t actually say some prayers or magic words and so the sea opened.
There is a version that tells us about an unknown man that, as the pharaoh’s
soldiers were approaching, said: I will not wait, I am going. I will cross.
And so he got into the sea and started walking, he was sure he had to get
to the other side and as he walked the water got up his chest, got up to his
throat and as it got to his mouth and nose, then, and only then, the
water started to recede.
- We must cross. It is our will, it is a question of belief. It is our
certainty that opens the sea. It is not a magic thing like luck. It is our
trust that will “open the way”
- It is about leaving the domain of our stomachs, and crossing the red sea
(of the diaphragm),and getting to our hearts. The Promised Land, the land
of our real identity.
- The important thing about this celebration is that, in a certain way, we
know all this. The fact is that we must renew this wish frequently. This
requires a drive. Every year, we can get together and all together renew our
intentions. It is a movement towards our goal which is to become ourselves, or
in other words, live ruled by our hearts.
