Exodus - Take 2
Okay, we were inspired and uplifted during Passover this year. At our seders we all merited to experience our Exodus; from our humble beginnings to our eventual blossoming into the Chosen People. (Thank G‑d, our seders were filled with over 150 friends and community members!). But it ain’t over yet. The second half of Passover begins this evening at sundown and we once again celebrate the Exodus.
Hey, didn’t we just do that? Why another holiday to focus on the very same event?
Well it was tonight, 3324 years ago, that the red sea split. It was on this night that we finally emerged as free men with our Egyptian oppressors forever silent beneath the bed of sea. In fact, because of the energy contained within the hours of this most auspicious evening, many have the custom to spend the night learning Torah until the crack of dawn.
This is because the splitting of the sea was not just a one time event that took place many years ago, rather each year ‘the sea splits’. Well, maybe not on a macrocosmic scale, but on an individual and personal basis - it does.
You see, the kabbalah teaches us that we each possess ‘a sea’; An entire world within us that is covered and obscured. You might say that it’s our subconscious. Most of us know very little of what is going on in the sub-cellars of our psyche.
But if we were given a glimpse of our own ‘sea’ what would we find there? Modern psychology tells us that we would find a self-centric, power-hungry, and lustful beast. But Judaism tells a different story.
Embedded within each of us is a piece of the divine; a desire to rise above our materialistic selves and become a part of the bigger picture. Each of us, in our moment of truth, believes in G‑d and wants to fulfill the purpose for which He placed us on earth.
And tonight the ‘sea splits’! Tonight that divine spark which is usually buried in the depth our subconscious sea is revealed. Tonight we experience liberation in the most profound sense, because tonight the real ‘me’ is expressed & can soar freely.
Of course it’s up to us. Let’s try to tap into the potent energy tonight. Let’s light the holiday candles, make kiddush over a glass of wine, and sit around the dinner table with our families encouraging each other to cultivate that inner spark of goodness and let it shine brightly.
Fruma and our children join me in wishing you and your entire family a kosher and joyous Passover holiday,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick
