The New Moon of Nisan
 The new moon of Nisan, is a very important day for many reasons. It was on this day that Israel received their first mitzvah as a people in preparation for leaving Egypt - the instructions regarding Nisan being the first of the months of the year, as well as the entire system of the Jewish calendar with all its secrets regarding how we can become the masters of time. It was the day we dedicated the Tabernacle in the desert, the future prototype of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and it was this day, according to Rabbi Yehoshua in the Talmud, that God actually created the world. All of these ideas are intrinsically bound together with the common theme of renewal and newness.
In Nisan, nature awakens from its winter hibernation and everything is bursting with new life. So too in the soul; new life force and potential is now ready to manifest itself. Two terms - spring cleaning and spring fever - represent the very real manner in which this energy effects us. We are ready for new directions and new insight, ready to break free from the restraints of the past and embrace the future with new optimism and enthusiasm.
This being the first mitzvah given to the Jewish people signifies the essential power of renewal in our national life. Has any people had to begin again so many times due to our long and tortured history? No matter what the circumstances, we have persevered and renewed ourselves countless times in communities around the globe. This essential power exists in every Jewish soul and is one of the secrets of our survival. The miraculous ingathering of the exiles and the rebuilding of our ancient homeland in Israel today clearly testifies to this truth.
We are not referring to just renewal, but an even more essential power to reveal new insight and spiritual energy altogether. The verse in Ecclesiastes (1:9 ) stating there is "nothing new under the sun," implies that "under" the sun there is nothing new, but "over" the sun there is always something new. Every Jewish soul is connected to the place "over the sun" in the deepest way. It is no wonder that approximately 20% of all Nobel Prize winners are Jewish, as this figure relates to the essential Jewish power in the soul to reveal new insight whether in Torah, literature, medicine, mathematics or science.
May we be blessed to see the fulfillment of the phrase: "A new light will shine upon Zion and may we all merit soon its light." May a new world order and a new relationship with God never perceived before spread to the four corners of the earth.
I Am To My Beloved and My Beloved Is To Me
It is customary to read during the three pilgrimage holidays - Pesach, Shavuot and Succot - three different books from the Writings that relate to the themes of those holidays. During Pesach we read the Song of Songs, on Shavuot the Book of Ruth and on Succot we read Ecclesiastes.
The Song of Songs, an exquisite allegorical love poem, can be understood on many different levels. It is at once a story of budding human love, but on deeper levels it is a love song between the Jewish people and God, the soul and its Divine source and the love of the Jewish people and the land of Israel. For this reason Rabbi Akiva stated that all the books of the Bible are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.
The question is what is the essential connection between Pesach and the Song of Songs? On a simple level the imagery in the Song of Songs is set during the spring and much of its references are examples of nature that can be seen and felt in the land of Israel, even today. In the spring new life, love and liberation are in the air, thus its connection to Pesach which also takes place in the spring. But on a deeper level the Song of Songs is all about relationships and so too is Pesach the true beginning of the passionate and ongoing love affair between the Jewish people and God, as it says: “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me…” (Song of Songs 2:16).
The categorization of the relationship between God and the Jewish people as a love relationship is deeply imbedded in hundreds of references in the written Torah, Prophets and Writings, and the full gamete of oral tradition from the Talmud to the Kabbalah. Jewish prayer, song and poetry are replete as well with these idyllic allusions. Beyond the notion of Pesach being the time of our freedom and redemption, its even more fundamental idea is that of our entering into a relationship as a people with the Creator of the universe.
Many religions and philosophies have a concept of a Creator or of a Divine force in the universe. The unique aspect of Judaism at its inception and even still today is the idea that we can not only have a dialogue and relationship with God, but that it can take the form of a covenant of love as between husband and wife.
Regarding the beginning of this relationship at the time of Pesach Jeremiah proclaimed: “So said God: I remember for your sake the kindness of your youth, the love of your bridal days, how you followed Me in the wilderness in an unsown land. The two names - Pesach and Chag HaMatzot, the holiday of matzot - both imply a leap of faith into a new relationship. God, as it were, leaped over the fact the Jewish people had fallen to the forty-ninth gate of impurity, while the Jewish people leap over all logic and precedent and follow God into a new physical and spiritual land.
Just as a couple who look back frequently and nostalgically at their wedding pictures to arouse the initial attraction between them, the Jewish people relive the beginning of their relationship with God by reciting at every Shabbat and holiday in the kiddush the phrase: “a rememberance of the going out [to freedom] of Egypt.” In fact one of the mitzvot in the Torah is to remember leaving Egypt every day and therefore it is part of our prayers both day and night. These reminders call to mind a constant awareness of the ongoing dynamic aspect of a living and dynamic relationship.
When putting on tefillin, phylactaries, each day we wrap our finger with the straps as if they were a wedding band and recite: “I will betroth you to Me forever, and I will betroth you to Me with righteousness, justice, kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to Me faithfulness, and you shall know God” (Hoshea 2:21-22). The use of the word “know,” is an allusion in Scripture to intimate marital relations. This is but one of the more graphic descriptions of what we have been discussing.
An amazing piece of Talmud discusses figuratively what is written in the parchments in God’s tefillin. Our tefillin contain the fundamental statement of Jewish belief: “Hear Oh Israel: The Lord is our God, The Lord is One” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Talmud informs us that in God’s tefillin are the words from the Shabbat afternoon prayers: You are One and your name is One; and who is like Your people Israel, one nation on earth.” Each partner in the relationship wants to proclaim the uniqueness of the other.
There are seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot. These seven weeks are compared to the seven days a bride prepares herself in great anticipation for her marriage to her groom. Shavuot in fact is described in Jewish tradition as the wedding between God and the Jewish people.
When the foundation of a relationship is strong, any difficulty or difference of opinion can be weathered. Pesach represents the arousal of love whose bonds can never be broken, as it says: “Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it… (Song of Songs 8:7). There is no doubt that the Jewish people have disappointed and tested God many times throughout history. Conversely, many Jews throughout the ages have been puzzled or even questioned God’s justice and rulership of the world at times. Nonetheless, both partners are committed to each other in a covenant that binds them together for all eternity. Pesach is when we relive those auspicious initial moments, committing ourselves once again to strengthen that great love of which it says: “I am my beloved’s and his desire is to me” (Song of Songs 7:11).
The Fifteen Steps of the Hagadah
The Hagadah of Pesach and all the rituals and mitzvot of the night are ordered according to fifteen steps. These fifteen stages in which the Seder unfolds are also referred to as “signs.” Our Sages tell us that signs and symbols have great significance (Kritot 6a). For example, we begin the year on Rosh HaShanah night by eating all sorts of foods, each one symbolic of certain blessings we hope for at the beginning of a new year. The steps of the Seder likewise have great significance and symbolize the process of personal, national and world redemption. There is a custom of calling out the name of each step or “sign” at the Seder as if announcing a lost object which needs to be reclaimed and redeemed (See The Chassidic Haggadah by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger).
The fifteen steps of the Seder also relate to the fifteen physical steps in the Holy Temple, on which the Levites stood while singing praises to God. King David wrote fifteen “songs of ascent” to parallel the fifteen steps of the Levites in the Temple. The correspondence of the fifteen steps of the Seder and the fifteen steps of the Temple gives us the feeling of rising from one level to the next during the Seder, as if being carried on the wings of song to ever greater heavenly heights.
The numerical value of fifteen equals the Hebrew letters yod and heh, the first two letters of the four letter name of God, and a name of God in its own right. This name significantly appears in the book of Exodus in the story of Amelek, the arch enemy of the Jews, when God figuratively puts His hand on the throne of God and promises war with Amelek in every generation (Exodus 17:16). Rashi points out that only the first two letters of the name of God are written and the word for throne is also written missing a letter. This, Rashi explains, indicates that until Amalek, the embodiment of evil, is wiped out, God’s name and throne are, as it were, incomplete.
The recital during the Seder of Pesach of the words: “ In every generation they rise up against us to destroy us…” reflects the same archetypal reality as expressed in the story of Amalek. The primordial energy of good versus evil, as expressed first in the story of Adam, Eve and the snake, and their final confrontation in the prophesies of the “end of days,” is very relevant to the energy surrounding Pesach and our present situation in Israel.
There are “signs” all around us as Israel and the world confront the terrorist threat so prevalent today. But, as in every sign or dream, much goes after how we choose to interpret it. We are most certainly being challenged and are being spoken to by God through the events around us.
As much as we need to react to evil and deal with the perpetrators, a more fundamental spiritual accounting is called for. We are told that the month long search and cleaning process for chametz, unleavened products, preceding Pesach must be accompanied by the realization that physical chametz is but a reflection of the inner spiritual work we need to do to truly prepare for Pesach. It seems clear that each person, community and all of Israel needs to look deeply within to see what we can do to rectify the present situation. There is certainly a need for a renewal of commitment to personal spiritual growth. To increase Torah learning and observance, to integrate sound Jewish morals and ethics, to greater love of our fellow Jews and humanity, for greater support for the land of Israel and a recommitment to Jewish collective responsibility. Let no one be oblivious to the fact that if Israel is seriously weakened (God forbid), every Jew in the world will be effected in a very negative way.
The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that every Jew contains a spark of the Messiah deep within their soul and that the ultimate arrival of the Messiah depends on each and every person activating their greatest spiritual potential, thus creating a critical mass of redemptive energy. This then will be transformed into the figure we call the Messiah.
In Egypt, when the slavery became so unbearable, we cried out in unison from the weight of our burdens and God heard and acted. Once again, we as a people need to feel the suffering and danger surrounding us and shake off our numbness and complacency in order to cry out to God to deliver us. There is no more auspicious time for us all to do this than on Pesach. We as a people have suffered enough - We Want Redemption Now!!
The Seventh Day of Pesach
On the seventh day of Pesach we celebrate the crossing of the Reed Sea. On this day the Jewish people left the borders of Egypt and watched as the pursuing army was drowned in the sea. According to one Midrash the sea did not split until Nachshon Ben Aminadov entered the sea determined to cross it (Tzror HaMor). Only when the water reached their noses did it split (Shemot Rabbah 21:9). The obvious lesson to be gleaned from this Midrash is that it took human initiative to draw down God’s intervention - in this case the miraculous splitting of the Sea.
After the people reached the other side and witnessed their enemies being drowned they burst out in song. The Midrash tells us that even the simplest hand maiden was granted a vision of the Divine greater than even the vision of Ezekial of the Divine chariot (Michilta on Exodus 15:2).
On the second night of Pesach we start counting the omer, the seven week, forty-nine day period culminating in Shavuot and the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. This period is very conducive to rectifying different aspects of our personality. According to Kabbalah, the seven weeks of the omer correspond to the seven lower sefirot, the channels of Divine flow into the world. The sefirot manifest themselves at all levels of reality, including that of the human psyche and personality. Each sefira, according to the principle of interinclusion, actually contains within itself an aspect of all the others, therefore we are taught that each night of the omer period represents a combination of two sefirot - the primary sefira of the week as well as an interincluded aspect. The combination of sefirot on the seventh night of Pesach is the aspect of yesod, foundation, within the aspect of chesed, mercy or loving kindness.
When translated into human experience this means that there is a connection between yesod shebe chesed, the “foundation of lovingkindness” and the events that took place at the crossing of the Sea.
Every person at some point has a vision of what they would like to accomplish in life, who they would like to be, what their true beliefs are and what their innate potential could achieve if activated. To translate that vision into reality is one of the main struggles and challenges of life. Many have the vision, but completely lack the inner fortitude to bring it to fruition. Others lack the confidence or faith in themselves to even begin. Others may attempt to realize their visions, but when the water gets up to the knees, they panic or lose determination. Others still, drown out the vision in alcohol or drugs or work or petty pursuits in order not to have to face the challenge of becoming who they know they could be.
But for those who have the “guts” to try to be all they could be, they must cross the Sea - there is no other way to get to the other side. For those fortunate ones who don’t give up, their vision becomes the foundation of their lives, the inspiration to try to fulfill their unique vision and mission in life. Upon this foundation their entire life rests.
The inner motivational dimension of yesod, foundation, is called emet, truth; the truth by which we live and make decisions. A building is only as strong as the foundation upon which it rests, on the truths that form our belief system. What an act of loving kindness it is from God when he grants us a glimpse of our mission in life and responds to our commitment to fulfill it by opening the sea and helping us through. Crossing the sea and the seventh day of Pesach are therefore the essence of the “foundation of loving kindness” through which we build our dreams and our reality.
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