Pesach is about to begin. The kitchen is cleaned, the chametz sold, the the representative remaining pieces burned in our little barbecue. The complexity of Passover is upon us. Every year it is a learning experience for me. I find out more about how to prepare, and more about how much I don't know, and as is my wont, I become more philosophical about the whole thing.
Getting rid of leaven, of the stuff that makes grains rise and puff up is harder than one might think, but I don't get obsessive. The whole exercise is to remember our release from bondage in Egypt, and to look within to see if we are in bondage right now, and how should we go about becoming free in our inner self. And to become more aware of and eliminate those things in ourselves that cause us to puff up in our own self importance.
Since introspection is in the air, I have made a list of things that I find myself stumbling over again and again. And even though I have failed a hundred times before, I am determined to pick myself up, dust myself off, reorient myself to the right direction, hitch up my britches, and get moving toward my goals. Toward my own soul work. By golly, it's no one else's responsibility. It's mine.
I will NOT bore you with what those goals are. It's embarrassing even to me to see how they have remained so constant over the years. I have wrestled with these demons before. But you know, there comes a day when one finally walks out of Egypt a free person. It's true, you might be scared spitless at what lies ahead. Walls of water, talking mountains, pillars of smoke, and dead bodies of your former oppressors, just to name a few.
My liberations will not be as dramatic, nor will my exodus require plagues of locusts I am sure. Cecil B. DeMille will not be narrating either, [thanks be to God]. But if it is true that I came here to this world to rectify some broken things, then I figure it's high time I get down to brass tacks and stop making endless excuses. I don't THINK it is going to require the parting of the Red Sea for me to do what I know is right.
When next we meet, I will most likely have Matzah on my breath. And if I merit it, a certain look of freedom about me.
Let us give the last word of the day to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov:
"The Architect of the world
never does the same thing twice.
Every day is an entirely
new creation. Take as much as
you can from what each new
day has to offer."
never does the same thing twice.
Every day is an entirely
new creation. Take as much as
you can from what each new
day has to offer."