24 Mar Pesach: The Cure Before the Malady (r)
Inspired by the teachings of Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh and Rabbi Moshe Genuth
According to the Sages… There is a powerful understanding that G-d creates the cure before the malady. We can see this in the Hagaddah through the words of the Sages…
‘Rabbi Jose the Galilean said that following ten plagues in Egypt proper, the Egyptians were smitten with fifty plagues at the Red Sea..’ The Haggadah continues ‘…if one finger of G-d caused 10 plagues…the hand of G-d caused fifty… ’ [therefore 5 fingers x 10 plagues = 50 plagues]
‘Rabbi Eliezer said…He brought (the plagues) …upon the Egyptians was fourfold in character… 1)Wrath- 2)Indignation- 3)Trouble- and 4)the Messengers of Evil.
The Egyptians were stricken with Ten-fourfold [10 plagues x 4 characteristic categories]. R. Eliezer (then says) ‘…they suffered two hundred’ [10 plagues x 4 characteristic categories x 5 fingers of G-d = 200 plagues].
‘Rabbi Akiva said…every plague is five-fold in character…1)Burning Anger- 2)Wrath-3)Indignation- 4)Trouble- and 5)The Messengers of Evil… Thus, if the Egyptians were struck with ten –five-fold plagues, making fifty, then at the Red Sea they suffered two hundred and fifty plagues.’ [10 plagues x five-fold =50 x 5 (as the hand of G-d metaphorically has 5 fingers) = 250 plagues] The sages all seem to be saying that there were more than the Ten Plagues. We must look closer for the deeper meaning…
When a person is ill with a cold, we simply say that ‘he has a cold’. Upon closer investigation we can find out that there are many hundreds of types or strains of colds. Saying ‘he has a cold’ is then a statement of a general category.
When the Sages spoke of the many plagues, they were telling us that the plagues (or as our example, ‘colds’) that struck the Egyptians had many levels of understanding to them. The Sages were breaking down the plagues from what was the ‘general’ 10 plague categories into the more ‘specific’, like breaking down colds or other maladies into more specified categories.
The sages understood that by understanding and identifying more of the categories or extended maladies of ‘The Ten Plagues’ would give us a greater opportunity to be able to search and find cure for what ails us and the maladies of the world which we must rectify. We can then extrapolate this understanding (as the sages did) and find the understanding that what was contained within the 10 plagues were all the maladies of the world. It becomes more clear that G-d showed his miraculous power.
The more things are ‘broken down’, the more we go from the ‘general to the specific’.., the more G-dliness is revealed to us, and the greater the opportunity to discover the malady and the cure to affect a healing ‘transformation’.
The cure before the malady;
Before G-d brought the plagues upon the Egyptians, of course he already had the cure. G-d is Infinite and G-d always has the cure, the key to rectification. G-d only wants us to succeed. He is the ultimate Goodness. Pharaoh and the Egyptians need only to have recognized G-d as the One and Only G-d to find and have the cure to their maladies. Instead pride, arrogance, ego and denial did not allow Pharaoh and the Egyptians to know the Truth.
Each person has their own unique things in life they must ‘cure’ (rectify) that are uniquely their own… this is their personal ‘Pesach journey’… their own journey of transformation (tikun).
Years ago, I found myself at what I pray, was the lowest point in my life. I checked myself into a rehabilitation facility. I was, as the Sidur says, ‘broken and bent’. It was an unconditional and absolute program requirement of the facility I attended to journal daily (cheshbon hanefesh, a personal inventory). It was the beginning of a process where I came to know how spiritually, physically and emotionally bankrupt my life truly had become, and the start of my process of tikun… a Pesach journey.
I had lived as a secular Jew. So years later, I was surprised when I looked back at my first ‘mandatory’ journal entry I wrote in that Rehab facility …“I am a Jew wandering in the desert”. I had no idea at the time of the powerful relevance of this journal entry. Just like the story of Pesach, I, like my ancestors, was a Jew wondering in the desert looking for purpose, meaning and truth. Through the 12-step program, it became apparent that a conscious connection with G-d was essential in the journey of recovery. So after nine months exclusively in the 12 Step Program, I began searching for someone who I believed had an authentic connection with G-d.
My journey brought me to becoming a Torah observant Jew and to discovering a relationship with G-d. I am grateful to G-d for this awakening…a miracle. I am grateful to G-d for His Torah, which is ‘My Torah’, and for giving me the opportunity and ability to reveal and understand authentic purpose, meaning and joy. For giving me my Pesach journey. We may have many such journeys in our lives. Each is a blessing.
I thank G-d for giving me the malady that brought me to Him, and I thank G-d for first creating the cure.
King Solomon writes in Koheles ‘…there is nothing new under the sun’.
Each of us has some kind of malady unique to each person. This is not a new concept. This malady is uniquely our own pain or disease of body, mind and soul. In the process of being redeemed or elevated from malady , we must understand that the ‘malady’ is given to us as a gift or opportunity to rectify and transform ourselves and the Nation of Israel, to come closer to G-d as an individual and Nation, and thus closer to the Final Redemption… the bringing of The Mashiach.
Each of us in our own way is a ‘Jew wandering in the desert’, and each on of us must journey to find the cure. It is within the malady and the cure that we can find the powerful sparks of Holiness to our individual and National transformation and rectification. The cure is here NOW! G-d creates the cure before the malady.
May your journey bring you transformation this Pesach,
Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
Addictions and Counseling (Hnrs)
www.lawrencelax.com
www.lawrenceJlax@gmail.com