24 Mar Pesach Series of Shorts (rev)

 

 

 

 

 

Holidays and  Recovery

Holiday times such a Passover can be very difficult for individuals and families dealing with issues of addiction and recovery.

At this holiday time, I am available to discreetly and at no fee,  provide you with support; information or answer questions you may have.  Please e-mail or Private Message me.

I can help.
Pesach Someyach,
Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
Addictions and Counseling  >

 

 

Pesach and Trust
Faith-emunah is an experience of the heart, it is emotive. Trust-bitachon is an experience of the mind, it is intellectual… empirical.

When Nation of Israel were enslaved in Egypt they had become ‘downtrodden’… vacant of faith , vacant of trust.

It was the witnessing of the empirical 10 Plagues, not a single event, but the accumulation of the 10 events that the Nation of Israel saw and experienced the hand of G-d. Through this series of tangible experiences they came to trust in G-d and followed Moses out of Egypt.  >

 

Those who observe the Laws of Pesach don’t eat leavened bread or cakes…chumatz.
People, especially those with mood disorders (bi polar, depression etc.) or addictions may find that during Passover they feel a little ‘low’.  During Passover journey it was  the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt that created a spiritual  void. A void of ‘self’  (ego) was created within the people which then prepared them and allowed them to receive the Torah.The process of ‘lowliness–shiflut’ or ‘bitul-self nullification’ is a state of being where we divest ourselves of  our ego (self).  We are more ready to receive when we are in a state of humility. The ‘creating’ of a void is like the creating of a vacuum which allows us to then be filled with holiness. This is a principle of Torah as well as physics.

 

In the leavening process (of bread and cakes and other grain products) there are enzymes known as phytates. These enzymes aid in the extraction of Zinc from protein (meat) which is key to the production of testosterone.

 

Low testosterone can cause a  feeling of ‘ flatness or emptiness’   and may trigger an episode of bi polar, depressive behaviour or cravings.  Zinc supplements can help maintain a healthy level of testosterone to help manage those at risk. Zinc supplements can be gotten over the counter at any pharmacy or health food store. The daily recommended amount of Zinc may vary. Ask the pharmacist for directions. It may be taken leading up to and during Passover.

 

What is quite interesting is that as our testosterone is lowered, it causes us to become more ‘lowly’ (ie nullified of our ego), and more receptive to receiving Torah somewhat like our ancestors who left Egypt. Once a void has become created, it can now be filled with the Goodness of  G-ds Spiritual Light, a spiritual transformation and rectification  of our ego can take place at the source of spiritual and psychological illness

 

Once the process of creating a void in oneself has begun physically (in this case through self nullification of ego  from the ‘Passover diet’), it is then possible to rectify oneself spiritually and psychologically… and receive Torah.

 

Thanks to Rabbi Shmuel Veffer for his inspiring insights on this. >

 

 

Pesach; Transformation of the Blemish
It was trust that led them out of Egypt and to the receiving of the Torah at Sinai… and faith.

 

The etymology of Pesach ( Pei-Samech-CHet ) can be translated as; to skip, leap, jump, pass over, limp.

 

Jacob wrestled with Esau and incurred the injury/blemish of a ‘dislocated hip’. He went down to Mitzrayim with 70 souls ‘ Pesach as ’p-s-ch’ = limping’. This is where we derive the law to not eat the (sciatic) nerve of this blemished area. This has Messianic implications.

 

The month they left Egypt and the Chag of Pesach is Nissan , the month of the Ram (leaping) and the month of transformation.

 

As they (the children of Jacob) came into Mitzrayim ‘limping’ (p-s-ch, as Nation identifies with Jacob and his limp), they left the exile from Mitzrayim ‘skipping and leaping’ (to the Final Redemption of Moshiach). Nissan, the month of Pesach is the month of the Ram that skips and leaps. This identifies the evolution and transformation of the journey of the Jewish people as they are redeemed to then bring about the healing of the Jewish people, the world, and the ushering in of the Messianic Era when we will enjoy a state of rectification.

 

The physical and spiritual blemish of Jacob as the Nation of Israel will then be healed along with all the maladies of the world and we will once again be able to consume the previously blemished part of the meat. >

 

Pesach; To Remember Deeply
Pakod yifkod in it’s various forms may translate as ‘G-d will surely remember‘ , and may also be found as Pakod Pakad’ti, to Deeply Remember.

 

It is referred to as ‘the redemption code’ and appears at 4 critical places in the Torah in reference to the coming of the Mashiach. The inspirational message is that there are powerful sparks of holiness concealed in the past that when ‘deeply remembered’ (pakod pakad’ti) and redeemed, are critical to bringing Mashiach and the Final Redemption,,

 

Whatever we may choose to remember to heighten our awareness of Pesach (or or as it may be in other experiences in life) we need to go beyond the superficial to truly open the depths of our heart to fully appreciate the potential of the emotive experience concealed within an event.

 

That is what is meant to ‘remember deeply’. Sharing and journaling about our personal lives journeys  and the ‘challenges and oppression to freedom’ can help us deepen our awareness and connection to the story of the Haggadah, as a universal journey of the soul.

 

May you discussions at your seder be deep and meaningful.

 

Let the Haggadah be your guide. >

 

Pesach; Naked and Bare
The families of Jacob settled in Egypt in the land of Goshen, and their lives were filled with abundance.

 

The Hagadah says that Hashem looked at them and says ‘you are beautiful of form yet you are naked and bare.’

 

We are being told and forewarned that the although there may be the appearance of outward beauty (and physical abundance) there was ( and may come to be )a lacking of a spiritual connection where there is abundance.

 

As it was then in Goshen, and as it may be throughout history, were there is physically beautiful and abundance, there is the potential to be spiritually naked and bare. >

 

 

 

Pesach; Tshuvah and Forgiveness
The essence of Pesach is the redemption and freedom of the Nation of Israel from the oppression of slavery in Egypt.

 

If we withhold the ability for another Jew to do tshuvah (to atone and rectify a situation) by withholding forgiveness, it is like holding a person hostage. We will have denied him his freedom to elevate himself. We would have held him captive as he was when he was a slave in Egypt.  >

 

Pesach; Free Will and Choice
With the Redemption from Egypt came the power of free will and choice.

 

Just as our free will has the power to repair and elevate ourselves, each other and the World, we must always keep in mind kindness and compassion, as our free will G-d forbif may also cause us to harm another. >
Pesach; Bricks and Morter
A Kabbalistic insight of the enslavement in Mitzrayim.

 

Those who sinned by building the Tower of Bavel yr.1996 (Heb) were reincarnated as those enslaved in Mitzrayim. It was a kapara (atonement and rectification) for the sin of the bricks and mortar of the building of the Tower of Bavel for the Israelites to make the bricks as ordered by the Pharaoh of Egypt in the story of Pesach (Exodus yr 2448); ‘You must impose upon them the same quota of bricks as they have made until now’. (Exodus 5;8 – the Kehot Chumash)

 

This line refers back to blocks used in the sin of the building Tower of Bavel from nearly 500 yrs previously and although there had been numerous different Pharoahs the remnant of the sin remained. There is an indication of a kapara – atonement in this commentary that the Israelites of the sin of Bavel that the number of blocks required to be produced by the Israelites during the enslavement of Egypt be equal to the number of the blocks used in the sin of the building of The Tower of Bavel.

 

Enslavement can be physical and or spiritual.
During the Exodus from Egypt, individuals and families became separated and only 1/5 of the Nation, 2 ½ million people left Egypt to experience freedom and receive the Torah at Mt Sinai. Those 12 ½ million who did not follow Moses out of Egypt perished.

 

There is incredible power created through the unity of relationships of individuals, as a family and as Nation. It is through the gift of freedom that people have free-will and choice to make positive, elevating change. This requires effort as prescibed in the guidelines of Torah.

 

It is a Torah obligation to keep your fellow Jew close. No Jew should be allowed to fall into the darkness like the darkness of the Jews that were enslaved in Egypt. >

 

Pesach;
Empty Egypt – Not Just the Physical Vessels, But to Redeem the Sparks of Holiness
G-d promised Avraham and latter Moshe that the benefit of the oppression and Exodus from Egypt will be to ’empty out’ Mitzrayim. This does not mean to simply empty Egypt of material things, but to empty out Egypt by igniting and bringing out with them powerful, yet to be revealed spiritual sparks of holiness necessary for the process of rectification of the the Jewish Nation and the World… The Final Redemption and Mashiach, and Tikun Olam (the Rectification of the World).

 

This is a beautiful insight (mashal) from R. Moshe Genuth (Gal Einai);

 

Years ago, where a farmer worked the field with hard labour of the most simple harvest where he acquired the (limited) merit of the sparks of holiness through his hard labour and a simple superficial sustenance Today we don’t work the fields in the same laborious way. For the most part, today we have machines to do much of the labour. So, the sparks of holiness we cultivate and elevate now have to be acquired in a different and deeper way. The sparks of harvests of years ago have been ignited… emptied.

 

Today we need to ‘cultivate our fields’ differently as we no longer plow by the physical hard work of our hands . We need to dig deeper, beyond the superficial, to elevate those sparks of holiness that were merited and redeemed aka emptied out from the hardship and exodus of Mitzrayim that have remained unignited since our exodus. We need to reveal and ignite all other remaining concealed sparks of holiness of galus if we are going to succeed at our mission; Mashiach and Tikun Olam.

 

see online class rabbi moshe genuth class shemot #519 youtube >

 

Garments that Merit Redemption from Mitzrayim|
Of those meritorious acts that saved them in Egypt…

 

Garments as spoken about in the Torah can have a multiple meaning as a garment of cloth or a spiritual garment ; both are ‘enclothements’.

 

Among the those things that merited the redemption of the Israelites from Mitzrayim (Egypt) are;

 

The Israelite slaves maintained their Hebrew names and they maintained the Hebrew language. It is well known that the ppwer of Hebrew letters and Hebrew words are conduits of spiritual energies that create reality. These are commonly ideas that may be shared at a Seder table.

 

What may not be so commonly shared at the Seder table is the idea that the merit of ‘garment’s to merit redemption’ which are typically believed to be actual garments of clothing of the slaves are understood to be spiritual garments.

 

It’s understood that as a slave, they didn’t have the luxury of ‘selecting ‘ their garments, we can than understand more deeply that the Torah refers to garments as something other than clothes, but as ‘spiritual garments’. So we can then understand the ‘garments’ the Israelites merited for the redemption was the merit of the spiritual garment (enclothement) of the mitzvot prohibition of engaging in the massive transgression of sexual immorality throughout Egypt.

 

Perhaps we may have not shared this idea at a seder table due to the sensitive nature of the idea of sexual immorality where children are present. >

 

Pesach; A Time to Feel
Most of us have come to know Judaism mostly from an academic, intellectual perspective.  A  Judaism of the mind.

 

But Judaism of the mind as an intellectual experience only, may compromise the full experience of Laws and Mitzvot as they can remain incomplete without a connection or ‘interinclusion’ of the intellectual aspects of the ‘mind’ with the (often neglected) emotive aspects of the ‘heart’. This interinclusion of the mind and heart culminates as the experience of ‘Daat- Knowledge’ of the interincluded and elevated experience of the Mind and the Heart’.

 

The holiday of Pesach and the story of the Haggadah are greatly focused on inspiring the emotive experiences of the Heart… ‘a time to feel’ . >

 

Pesach; Nissan, the Ram and Transformation of the Blemish

On the continuum of Jewish historty as it relates to Avraham’s Covenenat of Pieces’ and the 6000 year timeline of Moshiach, the first 2000 yrs from creation is the period of the Ox. The next 2000 years culminates with Pesach offering of the sacrifiicing of the lamb (an immature ram in Kabbalah). This ushers in the final 2000 year period of the Ram culminatiing with the 6000 year Messianic era and the sacrifice of the dove and turtle dove.

 

Where evolutionary change is slow, The Ram represents a time of quick transformation of change as it was experienced at the Akaida, the experience of the Shofar and the Month on Nissan whos Mazel (Jewish Zodiac Sign) is represented by the Ram.

 

It is clearly expressed as the Israelites were slaves in Mitzrayim, and were immediatly transformed to freedom.

 

The Ram represents the swift change of transformation…

The etymology of Pesach ( Pei-Samech-CHet ) can be translated as; to skip, leap, jump, pass over, limp like a Ram.

 

Jacob wrestled with Esau and incurred the injury/blemish of a ‘dislocated hip’. He went down to Mitzrayim with 70 souls ‘ Pesach (p-s-ch)… limping’. This is where we derive the law to not eat the (sciatic) nerve of this blemished area. This has Messianic implications.

 

As they (the children of Jacob) came into Mitzrayim ‘limping’ (p-s-ch), they left Mitzrayim ‘skipping and leaping’ (to the Final Redemption of Moshiach). Nissan, the month of Pesach is the month of the Ram that skips and leaps. This identifies the evolution and transformation of the journey of the Jewish people as they are redeemed to then bring about the healing of the Jewish people, the world, and the ushering in of the Messianic Era when we will enjoy a state of rectification.

 

The physical and spiritual blemish of Jacob as the Nation of Israel will then be healed along with all the maladies of the world and we will once again be able to consume the previously blemished part of the meat. >

 

 

Pesach; Shmurah Matzah
a brief explanation…

Shmurah matzah is preferred for the Seder. Its made from wheat that from the time it is harvested is carefully guarded to ensure no moisture may come in contact with it and cause it to become chumatz (leavened). The verse (Exodus, 12:17) states: ‘You shall guard the matzot. The matzah must be guarded to ensure that it does not become chametz’.

 

‘Those who permit the use of the machine made matzot contend that these matzot are preferable, since the automated process is faster than making matzot by hand and there is thus less possibility of the dough becoming chametz, provided that special care is taken to ensure that the machinery is kept clean and that no dough is allowed to remain in the machinery between the processing of one batch and the next.

 

Those who have prohibited the use of machine made matzot contend that baking matzah requires conscious intent that it is being done for the purpose of fulfilling the mitzvah, and this [intent] is absent were machines are used.

 

Machines can have no intent, and thus, matzot prepared by machine lack this prerequisite. They also point out that the intricacy of the machinery makes it extremely difficult to ensure that no dough remains in the grooves or gears, for if dough is left in the machinery it will render subsequent batches chametz.‘ (Chabad)

 

The debate continues…It is currently accepted that both machine and handmade shmurah matzos may be acceptable … best to talk to your Orthodox Rabbi. (Nb; machined matzah’s cost much less.  >

 

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!  >  

 

A Brief Look at the Omer

• An Omer is an offered amount (of Barley) 43.2 eggs. Barley is considered animal feed and accordingly is associated with lowliness and humility. These are traits required to rectify ones character.
• The full counting of the Omer is 49 Days that starts from 2nd day Pesach to Shavuos (the 50th Day). On the 50th Day one would hope to rectify his 7 emotive(character) emanations to then receive the Torah anew in a ‘rectified’ way on.
• There are 7 emotive ‘experiences’ (sephirot), each interinclude with the other that culminate as the rectification of the 7-within-7 for each of the 49 Days
• The 33 Days to Lag B’omer (L-amed G-imel =33) coincide with the Counting of the Omer. The 33rd Day is the Yehrzeit of the sage Rabbi Shimom Bar Yochai (The RASHBI) who penned the Kabbalistic text the Zohar. On this 33rd day of the Omer there is a celebration.
• The 33rd Day also coincides with the end of the plague of deaths of the of 24,000 student of Rabbi Akiva due to ‘baseless hatred’. They failed to embrace one another. Accordingly we observe a period of mourning during the first 33 Days. It is a period of diminished joy. The end of this period of mourning coincides with the celebration of Lag B’ Omer. All the days of the Omer culminate on the 50th Day of Shavuos, the day of receiving the Torah at Sinai.   >

 

 

ALL PESACH SERIES – FULL ARTICLES
https://www.auraoftorah.com/pesach-series-5775/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
Addictions and Counseling
lawrenceJlax@gmail.com
http://lawrencelax.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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