Pesah is coming. One of the most challenging things about Pesah for me is the unique feeling of being stuffed and unsatiated. On Pesah we eat almost nonstop, but without chametz, I'm left feeling hungry.
What can I learn from this about Pesah?
The Holiday of Pesah is a special time set aside to recognize the difference between living a physical existence, and living a spiritual existence clothed in physical experience. When we eat on Pesah we don't feel satiated to show us that physicality itself isn't enough. The Matzah gives us a taste of spirituality, makes us hungry even starving for the spiritual part of our existence.
That's why, at the end of the seder, after we've eaten the afikoman and will eat no more, we pray "Next year in Yerushalayim rebuilt." After our physical hunger should be completely satiated and yet we still feel hunger, we recognize that that hunger is for spiritual fulfillment, the kind only possible in Jerusalem, in the Beit HaMikdash, together with all of Am Yisrael.
לשנה הבא בירושלים הבנויה
Showing posts with label pesah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pesah. Show all posts
22.3.10
27.5.09
a glimpse of the world to come
Out of the three regalim, the three festivals, Shavuot is a one-day affair. The other two are seven days long, and Sukkoth even has a special extra eighth day.
Yet there is a halachah that if someone passes away the day before Shavuot, those who must mourn them essentially do not sit shiva. What's so weird about this? Shiva is named for the fact that it is a seven-day mourning period. When Shabbath falls during the shiva, we don't observe most of the minhagim associated with shiva, because one can't mourn outwardly on Shabbath.
When this mourning period falls before Pesah or Sukkoth, it's understandable that there is no real period of mourning, we are commanded to be happy on the festivals, and these festivals each last seven days in length, which means that there is no time left in which to observe the mourning period.
But what about Shavuot? It's only one day long, so if someone passed away right before Shavuot, why wouldn't the mourners be required to sit for the five days after Shavuot?
In order to answer this I need to share something with you about the true nature of time and the world to come. The world to come is called a day that is entirely long. What does this mean? Chazal explain in the hidden Torah that in this world, each day vies for it's time in the spotlight and since the days themselves cannot get along and work together, each day shines for twenty-four hours and then ceases, making room for another day to take over. In the world to come, the days dwell together peacefully and so they all shine at once, indefinitely.
From this perhaps we can see how Shavuot is a taste of the world to come and at the same time explain our quandry regarding the halachot of mourners after Shavuot. I would like to say that Shavuot is actually a seven-day festival just like her sister festivals. The difference is that on Shavuot all the days dwell in peace with one another, and so down here in this world, Shavuot is represented as only a single day -- yet when it comes to the laws pertaining to mourning, since Shavuot is the holiday representing the resurrection of the dead, so we count all seven days of Shavuot and negate the mourning period -- just as the ultimate resurrection will render mourning a moot point.
19.4.09
night of the splitting
On the seventh night of Pesah, at the Kotel, I heard a derasha from Rav Ades. He was speaking about making oneself holy. Out of everything he said I took away two major points:
(1) The more we awaken the different levels of our soul to Godliness, the more effect our prayers and Torah have on all the levels of our soul.
(2) In order to overcome obstacles in arousing oneself to prayer or Torah, one needs to draw the flames of Torah down into the deepest recesses of oneself.
These aren't exactly the things Rav Ades said, but this is the best understanding of it I could grasp. I've been trying to implement these teachings in my daily Tanya study. (I normally learn the daily Tanya lesson twice each morning) The first time through the daily lesson, I intend to awaken my soul as much as possible until even my toes want to be involved in the learning. The second time through, I learn with a fierce fire and passion to burn the words deep into my heart.
Rav Ades explained also the idea that the splitting of the sea was only in the merit of Yosef HaTzaddik. He said something to this effect, "Imagine, as the result of one man's holiness, the whole Jewish people survived and escaped."
13.4.08
the completion of shabbos
The Bnei Yissachar (Nisan:3) humbly offers a chidush regarding why Shabbath HaGadol, the Shabbath before Pesah, ("The Great Shabbat") bears its name.
Since the time of our forefathers, they were practicing the Torah in all its nuances, but there was one area of halachah that remained undecided. They didn't know whether their practicing of the 613 mitzwoth exempted them from the 9 mitzwoth of the children of Noah. You might say that the 613 mitzwoth contain the 9 mitzwoth, true, but there are still very practical differences.
For example, he goes on to explain, once an animal has been slaughtered according to Jewish ritual law, the animal is now permissible for Jews to eat even if it is still kicking, whereas, since there is no concept of a proper way to slaughter animals for Bnei Noah, they must wait until the animal is dead, lest they transgress the prohibition of eating the limb of a living animal. (Whereas for Jews, the prohibition is only relevant before slaughter but not afterwards. Please note however that this is all a very technical example, but without the necesary information to derive practical halachah.) This safek, the doubt as to how to classify the children of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov before Sinai, was actually at the root of the dispute between Yosef and his brothers. He told his father (Yaakov Avinu) that his brothers were transgressing the law of Bnei Noah by not waiting until the animal had died, whereas the brothers believed that since they kept all 613 mitzwoth of the Torah that they were exempt from the 9 mitzwoth of Bnei Noah.
This uncertainty created a major problem for our forefathers because it is clearly prohibited for a Bnei Noah to observe the Shabbath. Yet, if they wanted to properly keep the Torah, Shabbath observance is a major tenet of the 613 mitzwoth. What did they do as a result? They would observe the Shabbath flawlessly, except for a single transgression introduced in order to take into account this confounding uncertainty.
The Bnei Yissachar goes on to explain that the Rabbis all agree that according to the Torah, for a Bnei Noah there is only one valid way to purchase something. There is a disagreement as to what that one way is, but everyone agrees that there is only one way, it is either through meshicha pulling something into your possession, or through kesef, paying money for something. Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam disagree as to which way it is, but everyone agrees that one opinion is right and one wrong.
When HaShem commanded Bnei Yisrael to take the Pesah lamb, He tells Mosheh to tell them, "Pull and Take for you." The word used to Take here is a word that carries the connotation of purchasing with money. From the fact that HaShem, whose knowledge is without limit, commanded them to purchase the Pesah lamb both through pulling it into their possession, AND through paying money for it, Bnei Yisrael finally understood that they were no longer considered Bnei Noah. How so? Well, everyone agrees that Bnei Noah have only one way to purchase, meaning a second way would be irrelevant, and lest you say that they performed both kinds of purchasing just to be sure, there was no need 'to be sure' because HaShem doesn't have any 'doubt' about which kind of purchase is a valid purchase. (The Bnei Yissachar goes on to illustrate this chidush a little further, but this post is already complex enough.)
[To anyone who was brave enough to follow this far and hasn't gotten confused, I just wanted to reflect on this idea:] Stop and think about this. Their whole lives, for as many as five or six generations they had been guarding and keeping the Shabbath in every detail, except at one point each and every Shabbath, because of one uncertainty, they had to break the Shabbath somehow. No matter how small the transgression, it was an acknowledgement that they couldn't keep the Shabbath in its entirety. For more than four hundred years they ALMOST kept Shabbath. (that's more than 20,000 Shabbaths!)Can you imagine what it was like on Shabbath HaGadol, THE GREAT SHABBATH, that Bnei Yisrael kept Shabbath for the first time? Can you imagine the rejoicing and the singing?.. Can you imagine Seudah Shlishit, the third and final meal when they approached the end of Shabbath and they could hardly believe that this was it, this was their first Shabbath ever.
Shabbath is tantamount to the Beit HaMikdash. What Shabbath is to time, the Beit HaMikdash is to space. The Torah speaks about the completion of the Mishkan and the completion of the Beit HaMikdash, but for me this is the first time I ever heard about the completion of Shabbath. And we know, that while we don't have the Mishkan nor the Beit HaMikdash, we still have Shabbath. Shabbath and the Jewish people have celebrated thousands of years together. Wherever there is a Jew, that's where Shabbath will be. Shabbath and the Jewish people are inseparable. We can't begin to imagine the rejoicing of that first union.
That's why it's called The Great Shabbath.
May we all merit to experience A Great Shabbath this week, and may it uplift us into Pesah like we never experienced it before. (This year Shabbath HaGadol runs right into the first night of Pesah, when one ends the other begins.)
Since the time of our forefathers, they were practicing the Torah in all its nuances, but there was one area of halachah that remained undecided. They didn't know whether their practicing of the 613 mitzwoth exempted them from the 9 mitzwoth of the children of Noah. You might say that the 613 mitzwoth contain the 9 mitzwoth, true, but there are still very practical differences.
For example, he goes on to explain, once an animal has been slaughtered according to Jewish ritual law, the animal is now permissible for Jews to eat even if it is still kicking, whereas, since there is no concept of a proper way to slaughter animals for Bnei Noah, they must wait until the animal is dead, lest they transgress the prohibition of eating the limb of a living animal. (Whereas for Jews, the prohibition is only relevant before slaughter but not afterwards. Please note however that this is all a very technical example, but without the necesary information to derive practical halachah.) This safek, the doubt as to how to classify the children of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov before Sinai, was actually at the root of the dispute between Yosef and his brothers. He told his father (Yaakov Avinu) that his brothers were transgressing the law of Bnei Noah by not waiting until the animal had died, whereas the brothers believed that since they kept all 613 mitzwoth of the Torah that they were exempt from the 9 mitzwoth of Bnei Noah.
This uncertainty created a major problem for our forefathers because it is clearly prohibited for a Bnei Noah to observe the Shabbath. Yet, if they wanted to properly keep the Torah, Shabbath observance is a major tenet of the 613 mitzwoth. What did they do as a result? They would observe the Shabbath flawlessly, except for a single transgression introduced in order to take into account this confounding uncertainty.
The Bnei Yissachar goes on to explain that the Rabbis all agree that according to the Torah, for a Bnei Noah there is only one valid way to purchase something. There is a disagreement as to what that one way is, but everyone agrees that there is only one way, it is either through meshicha pulling something into your possession, or through kesef, paying money for something. Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam disagree as to which way it is, but everyone agrees that one opinion is right and one wrong.
When HaShem commanded Bnei Yisrael to take the Pesah lamb, He tells Mosheh to tell them, "Pull and Take for you." The word used to Take here is a word that carries the connotation of purchasing with money. From the fact that HaShem, whose knowledge is without limit, commanded them to purchase the Pesah lamb both through pulling it into their possession, AND through paying money for it, Bnei Yisrael finally understood that they were no longer considered Bnei Noah. How so? Well, everyone agrees that Bnei Noah have only one way to purchase, meaning a second way would be irrelevant, and lest you say that they performed both kinds of purchasing just to be sure, there was no need 'to be sure' because HaShem doesn't have any 'doubt' about which kind of purchase is a valid purchase. (The Bnei Yissachar goes on to illustrate this chidush a little further, but this post is already complex enough.)
[To anyone who was brave enough to follow this far and hasn't gotten confused, I just wanted to reflect on this idea:] Stop and think about this. Their whole lives, for as many as five or six generations they had been guarding and keeping the Shabbath in every detail, except at one point each and every Shabbath, because of one uncertainty, they had to break the Shabbath somehow. No matter how small the transgression, it was an acknowledgement that they couldn't keep the Shabbath in its entirety. For more than four hundred years they ALMOST kept Shabbath. (that's more than 20,000 Shabbaths!)Can you imagine what it was like on Shabbath HaGadol, THE GREAT SHABBATH, that Bnei Yisrael kept Shabbath for the first time? Can you imagine the rejoicing and the singing?.. Can you imagine Seudah Shlishit, the third and final meal when they approached the end of Shabbath and they could hardly believe that this was it, this was their first Shabbath ever.
Shabbath is tantamount to the Beit HaMikdash. What Shabbath is to time, the Beit HaMikdash is to space. The Torah speaks about the completion of the Mishkan and the completion of the Beit HaMikdash, but for me this is the first time I ever heard about the completion of Shabbath. And we know, that while we don't have the Mishkan nor the Beit HaMikdash, we still have Shabbath. Shabbath and the Jewish people have celebrated thousands of years together. Wherever there is a Jew, that's where Shabbath will be. Shabbath and the Jewish people are inseparable. We can't begin to imagine the rejoicing of that first union.
That's why it's called The Great Shabbath.
May we all merit to experience A Great Shabbath this week, and may it uplift us into Pesah like we never experienced it before. (This year Shabbath HaGadol runs right into the first night of Pesah, when one ends the other begins.)
8.4.08
the debt of hametz
ואם לוה ככר קודם פסח, מוטב להחזירו קודם פסח ואם לא החזירו קודם יחזירנו אחר פסח ואין בזה חשש, ואם לא יחזירו יש בזה משום גזל: - if one borrows a loaf of bread before Pesah, it is better to return the loaf before Pesah, but if one didn't one should [definitely] return it after Pesah and there is no need to worry. And if someone did not return the loaf after Pesah, it becomes a problem of robbery.The Ben Ish Hai (Year one, parashath Tzav, letter yud) explains an interesting dilemma: If you owe someone a loaf of bread before Pesah, and you give them back a loaf of bread after Pesah, is this problematic?
It is better to return any debts of Hametz before Pesah. Though, if one did pay back the debt after Pesah, there is no problem with it. (For those who would like to look into this halachah in further depth, it is discussed in Siman תנ - 450 in the Shulchan Aruch, Beit Yosef, Aruch HaShulchan etc. The explanation in the Shulchan Aruch HaRav (found online here) is especially clear and thorough.)
To me this is an interesting question. It's as if we're getting into the realm of quantum-mechanics-like questions. Does the debt purport some kind of potential existence of this loaf of bread over Pesah? All the halachic inquiries deal with whether there was any kind of connection between the debt and any actual hametz that might be said to be in quasi-possession of the Jew over Pesah. In the end, even if a non-jew pays back a debt to a Jew (from before or (i think even on Pesah)) after Pesah with hametz that was prepared on Pesah, there is still no problem.
When I learned this halachah I liked the intellectual elegance of it; But it took a practical turn when I remembered a coworker bought me a KitKat (actually the Israeli equivalent: KifKef) a month or two ago and I never got around to paying them back. Now I know I should probably do it before Pesah to avoid any doubts.
1.4.08
bread of humility
Rebbe Natan explains (Likkutei Halachoth - Hilchot Tefillin) that we are nourished not by the food we eat, but rather by the life-force within the food. If our bodies were purified in that they were completely humbled before HaShem, then we would be nourished directly from the life-force and the food itself would pass through us undigested.
It is only because we have not rectified our entire bodies, that we digest and use the corporeality of the food. Whichever part of our bodies have not properly been humbled cannot receive directly from the life-force within the food and so they are forced to consume the food itself in order to derive life.
This humility is an aspect of Mosheh Rabbeinu who was utterly humble. Each of our 248 limbs and 365 sinews must expose their potential humility which is the nature of Mosheh Rabbeinu that is latent within that body part. When our whole body is in a state of awareness of its dependence on and recognition of HaShem's might, then we don't need to eat at all. This is how Mosheh survived for one hundred and twenty days on Sinai without eating or drinking.
The reason, he explains, that our digestive functions produce putrid/disgusting byproducts is to remind us of how lowly and dependent we truly are.
It seems to me that this is good to keep in mind during the time between Purim and Pesah when we are meant to work on perfecting our ability to eat in holiness.
It is only because we have not rectified our entire bodies, that we digest and use the corporeality of the food. Whichever part of our bodies have not properly been humbled cannot receive directly from the life-force within the food and so they are forced to consume the food itself in order to derive life.
This humility is an aspect of Mosheh Rabbeinu who was utterly humble. Each of our 248 limbs and 365 sinews must expose their potential humility which is the nature of Mosheh Rabbeinu that is latent within that body part. When our whole body is in a state of awareness of its dependence on and recognition of HaShem's might, then we don't need to eat at all. This is how Mosheh survived for one hundred and twenty days on Sinai without eating or drinking.
The reason, he explains, that our digestive functions produce putrid/disgusting byproducts is to remind us of how lowly and dependent we truly are.
It seems to me that this is good to keep in mind during the time between Purim and Pesah when we are meant to work on perfecting our ability to eat in holiness.
30.3.08
when words mean more than action
In the end of Masechet Megillah (31b) there is a conversation recorded between HaShem and Avraham Avinu, about what would happen if we anger HaShem and He wants to destroy us. In short, Avraham Avinu asks, what about when there is no Beit HaMikdash and they sin before you, since they can't offer any sacrifices, how will they repair their sins? HaShem replies that He gave us the Torah that outlines the laws and ritual of the sacrifices, whenever we read the Torah of the sacrifices, HaShem accepts that as if we offered the sacrifices themselves and forgives us our transgressions.
It seems to me like perhaps we should learn the Torah of the karbonot whenever we want to work on Teshuvah. This is especially relevant as we are now in the book of VaYikra which contains the teachings pertaining to the various offerings.
HaShem so much wants our Teshuvah and our well-being that He will accept something that is no more than a written account of what should be done as a full apology. This is interesting in the light of what Shmuel HaNavi says to Shaul HaMelech when he saved the animals of Amalek to offer as sacrifices to HaShem: You think HaShem wants your sacrifices? All He wants is for you to listen to His Word.
So, by learning the Torah of the karbonot (Torah being the Word of God) when we cannot currently actually offer the sacrifices, perhaps we are acknowledging the depth of Shmuel HaNavi's words.
On a semi-related note, the RaShaSh z"l Rav Shalom Sharabi, regarding the Tefillah and the Seder on Pesah, explains that mitzwoth that are performed through speech alone illuminate with the inner aspect of HaShem's light, whereas mitzwoth performed through physical acts illuminate with the outer aspect of HaShem's light. So, perhaps in our case here, even though we cannot bring down the outer light, through actually performing the sacrifice, by reading the Torah regarding the sacrifice aloud, we can still awaken and draw down the inner light.
It seems to me like perhaps we should learn the Torah of the karbonot whenever we want to work on Teshuvah. This is especially relevant as we are now in the book of VaYikra which contains the teachings pertaining to the various offerings.
HaShem so much wants our Teshuvah and our well-being that He will accept something that is no more than a written account of what should be done as a full apology. This is interesting in the light of what Shmuel HaNavi says to Shaul HaMelech when he saved the animals of Amalek to offer as sacrifices to HaShem: You think HaShem wants your sacrifices? All He wants is for you to listen to His Word.
So, by learning the Torah of the karbonot (Torah being the Word of God) when we cannot currently actually offer the sacrifices, perhaps we are acknowledging the depth of Shmuel HaNavi's words.
On a semi-related note, the RaShaSh z"l Rav Shalom Sharabi, regarding the Tefillah and the Seder on Pesah, explains that mitzwoth that are performed through speech alone illuminate with the inner aspect of HaShem's light, whereas mitzwoth performed through physical acts illuminate with the outer aspect of HaShem's light. So, perhaps in our case here, even though we cannot bring down the outer light, through actually performing the sacrifice, by reading the Torah regarding the sacrifice aloud, we can still awaken and draw down the inner light.
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