10 Dec Pesach – Dayenu, It would have been enough!
Pesach Series
Dayenu- It would have been enough!
Imagine…
To have experienced the lowest of lows in Mitzrayim as an individual and a Nation,
To have reached a point of personal and National nullification only because you were so close to spiritual and physical death,
To have found at that point, deep within yourself… the need to cry out to G-d…. and,
To have felt yourself to be a deep and dark empty vessel that could only be resurrected by being ready to receive and be filled with G-d… His Light.
Such a person is as a vessel that is created either through external circumstance, or through ones own process of nullification (or a combination of both). Such a person through a process of transformation can manifest a state of being known as dveikut, a closeness to G-d that can only be experienced through the process of the acquiring of the trait of humility through nullification-bitul (or through shiflut- self deprecation). Such a vessel became possible after being oppressed in Egypt to the point of extinction. We can see then yet another miracle of the Exodus from Mitzrayimwas the acquiring of the attributes of bitul and shiflut during their oppression. They were broken and beaten. They needed to be re-infused , thier spiritual void filled with a positive G-d consciousness. Such was the miracle of the hardships of Egypt that was created within each person of Klol Yisroel; as a Nation of vessels to receive G-ds Light.
It now beckons the question of how close is close when it comes to ones relationship with G-d? We may simply say that a state of dveikut (lit. to stick or cling) is the closest one can be to G-d and still remain in this World. Such was the state of the Klol Yisreol at the Exodus from Egypt. They became a ‘spiritual sponge’… thirsting and hungering for G-ds light. Within a month of the Exodus, they merited to receive the Torah at Sinai.
It is this state of being, dvaikut…‘this close-clinging relationship to G-d’ that we can now understand better why we say dayenu, it would have been enough. When someone experiences such closeness to G-d, the realities of the physical world takes on a different meaning. A person looses his sense of self… he is ‘selfless’…without ego…. he is in a state of bitul-nullification. A person can only become so close to the Almighty and still remain in this world before completely loosing touch with this reality. Dayenu, It would have been enough that G-d took us out of Mitzrayim, as it was at that point we experienced dvaikut, a closeness where one could not become any closer to G-d without removing oneself from this world…Dayenu.
But, as G-ds Light is abundant and infinite, we are given many other examples through the rest of the Dayeinu prayer that teach us that as infinite as G-ds gifts to us could possibly be, there are still more. And so we say … Dayenu, It would have been enough!
Chag Someyach,
Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
Addictions and Counseling (Hnrs)
http://www.lawrencelax.com