Shalom

Don’t pass up passover

There is a central message of the Pesach holiday: God loves us
Rabbi David Aaron

I was once sitting and learning Torah with Kirk Douglas, the Hollywood actor, when suddenly he turned to me and said, “You know, Rabbi, I love being Jewish.”
“Oh, yeah? Why?” I asked.
“Because being Jewish is dramatic!”
I was surprised by his unusual answer and thought to myself, I guess for these big time actors, everything is showbiz.
“Dramatic? I am sorry but I don’t get the connection,” I told him.
“Rabbi, I know drama, and let me tell you, Jewish life and Jewish history is dramatic. In fact, there are several archetypical themes to all films, and they are all from the Torah. Here, let me show you what drama is.”
“You see, drama happens in the sharp contrasts of life—between happiness and sadness, failure and success, defeat and victory, darkness and light. And that is the story of the Jewish people. It’s dramatic.”

Kirk is right. In fact, all the Jewish holidays plug us back into the drama of Jewish life. The sharp turns and striking contrasts in Jewish history inspire powerful clarity.

Remembering what was in the past awakens us to see what is in the present and what can be in the future. The holidays empower us to recognize how God’s love is with us all the time.

Love is in the Air
Pesach celebrates the exodus from Egypt as an event greater than just a political emancipation of the Jewish people. It was a spiritual transformation. The Jews were not only physically enslaved but also spiritually enmeshed in Egyptian culture. Egypt was the epitome of egotism and haughtiness.
But in truth we all know that in actuality, a person is egotistical because he lacks true self-esteem and confidence of his self-worth. His haughty airs are really a cover-up, a guise. He is trying to compensate for his painful sense of inadequacy and insecurity.
Maimonides, the great 12th century sage, explains that humanity’s lack of self-worth was what led them to idolatry. He explains that the ancients were unable to fathom that God would personally care about them. Therefore, they sought out help from an intermediate power other than God.

They believed that their lives were guided by the power of the stars because God, the Creator, does not personally care about them. They reasoned, “Of what worth are we that the Creator would have any regard for our situation?”
The Pesach story teaches us that this despairing attitude is false. A verse in the Torah reads, “Don’t make intermediate Gods, guard the
Festival of the Matza.” The Sages explain this odd juxtaposition: “This is to teach us that anyone who disgraces the Festival is as if performs idolatry.” In other words, celebrating Pesach affirms our belief that God loves us and personally takes care of us; there is no need for any intermediaries between us. To think otherwise is the beginning of idolatry.

Unconditional love
Judaism teaches that God’s love and care for us is unconditional. Therefore, when the Temple stood in Jerusalem we were obligated to come there and, so to speak, greet God face-to-face. Of course, the presence of God fills the earth and we are in His presence wherever we may be.
However, in Jerusalem that truth is more readily experienced. On the holiday of Pesach even a simpleton with no preparation could experience a sudden quantum leap in his spiritual level and feel worthy to enjoy a personal loving relation with God. Each and every one of us is befitting to bask in God’s loving presence.
The Torah refers to the Festival as a “moed,” which literally means “to meet.”
The portable sanctuary that the Jews carried with them in the desert was called the “ohel moed”— the Meeting Tent. It was a place to meet God.
The Festivals, however, are a time to meet God. The Torah also refers to festivals as “mikra’ei kodesh,” a “callings of holiness,” because it calls forth from each of us our innate holiness and Godliness. Therefore, to deny yourself the celebration of a moed—a direct meeting with God --- is as if to accept the claim of idolatry; that God doesn’t love and care about you because you are insignificant and, therefore, unworthy of His personal attention.
Rabbi David Aaron, Founder and Dean of the Isralight Institute, is internationally recognized as an expert on the Kabbalah and is the best-selling author of: Seeing God: Ten Life Changing Lessons of the Kabbalah; Endless Light : The Ancient Path of Kabbalah, The Secret Life of God: Discovering the Divine within You, and his newly released audio book Kabbalah Works: Secrets for Purposeful Living.

posted by jone @ 23:15