Parshat Shmini-Desiring the Path of Desire

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The Weekly Mission:
Parshat Shmini-Desiring the Path of Desire
Pesach and Haggada

As the Month of Nissan departs and the spring slowly reaches its pivotal moments we must allow ourselves to process the events that the previous season enabled us to experience. The Seder in its true essence is a psychological paradigm that teaches us how to take the necessary steps in order to leave the straights of perpetual slavery. Kadesh: my personal Exodus can, and will not begin if I do not believe I am worthy of such a departure. If I do not deem myself to be holy, how can I truly sanctify? Furthermore, if I cannot Mekadesh (separate) myself from that which I am enslaved to, how can I even implement that which I want to change—for I know In my heart that even if I long for personal salvation, its coordinates will never be known to me if I remain in the courtyards of fools.[i]

Nirtzah: this final step on the latter does not only provide for us the ability to look below at each rung climbed and say that these steps were desired (nirtzeh) and necessary in order to leave my servitude, but it also gives us the confidence to take that final step off the latter and to look out in the horizon and proclaim “I don’t want to go back there, I desire to pave my own path towards self-actualization (Nirtzeh).” Through nirtzah we learn one of the most profound of truths with regards to freedom. Freedom is not freedom if desire has not been awakened in the process. After repetitious degradation and oppression a slave no longer desires. The will for more is extinguished because a slave does not believe “more” exists. We proclaim during Maggid “this year we are slaves, next year may we be free,”[ii] because in fact the Seder is only meant to be an impetus for the long awaited personal redemption, we do not leave Egypt unless we engage in the process necessary to do so.

The above idea is received by all for the very basic reason that each and every human being desires freedom. Freedom on its basic level is given to us in a single moment, but true freedom cannot be graspable if one does not first quest into the pits of hell and internalize what Egypt does/did to each of us differently: “I am of sealed lips, (Moshe)” and “they (Israel) did not hear,” while all had “shortness of breath.” Each of us must awaken the desire to walk through each gate of slavery and shatter the locks that prevent us from passing through. “Then you shall celebrate the Festival of Shavout before HaShem your G-d, offering your freewill gift... you shall rejoice before your G-d, you, your sons and daughters, your servants and maidservants, the Levi in your gates and the stranger, orphan and widow…and you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and so you shall observe and fulfill these statutes.”

The freedom of Pesach is nothing more than the awakened desire to build again what Pharoah took away from you, the gift of self-authority and the ability to offer a brand new you to the world.

Sfirat HaOmerSfirat HaOmer is likened to a withering tree that must be replanted. The previous location did not suffice so a new location must be sought out. The trouble is; if the tree is just simply replanted, and the precautionary measures are not taken, the desired new location would prove to be meaningless. There are remains of vines and weeds connected to this tree that drains its energy sources from both the waters below and the light from above. “Seven weeks shall you count for yourself; from the time that you begin to cut the grain which stands begin to count the seven weeks…” we must lay no credence to our past in Egypt. We must cut down all production until that point and begin anew.

The Netivot Shalom writes: “As explained on the foundation and elaborated in the Holy Sfarim (Kabbalah) ‘the matter of the Exodus is mentioned fifty times in the Torah, fifty times according to the fifty different aspects/ways (bechina) of leaving Egypt. Therefore, the leaving of Egypt is only the first of the 50 ways, so one must include the other ways in his/her process of leaving the fifty levels of slavery.”

Friends, every day we state in the Shema “I am HaShem your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt to be a G-d to you.” We state this because every single day we must awaken in us, or strengthen in us, the will for more; the desire to reach Har Sinai and actually be prepared to do so; the desire to hear what we were once deaf to and see what we were once blind to. My words to you are for me, because in reality, there are neither words poetic enough nor songs captivating enough to awaken within your heart the desire for more. Our only hope should be is that we are able to be true to what we stated last just two Friday nights past: “this year we are slaves, next year may we be free!”

This week I will try to: ask myself what stands in my way…and….DESIRE, LONG, YEARN for DESIRE!

[i] If you are more interested in this step by step “therapeutic model” for self growth and leaving your bonds of enslavement through the Haggadah-let me know.
[ii] See Maggid “Avadim Hayinu”

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