Dvar Torah for Pesach

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Rosh Chodesh 3:3, 5

Two notes before we get to this week's dvar Torah. One concerns the correction I sent out on Sunday concerning when the Rebbe of Piazetzna passed away. There were some “counter”-corrections which I did not send out. I just wanted to say that for our purposes the main point is that he died a martyr's death at the hands of the accursed Nazis.

The second note concerns getting ready for Pesach (Passover). If you don't already own one, do yourself a favor and get a copy of the Breslov Haggadah. It has been called “the greatest Jewish work in English” which is perhaps somewhat overstated, but it gives you an idea of how much some people value it. It contains a large amount of thought-provoking material and at the same time is quite easy to read. It should be available at your local Jewish bookstore. If not, you can order it from us at  www.breslov.org/catalog.html. Please order from the geographical location nearest you.

Pesach! What a great holiday! Jews get together at the Seder and do what they best—talk! There's certainly a lot to talk about: politics (national. international, family), passages (birth, death, change of this-worldly address), business (financial, monkey) just to name a few. Oh. And, of course, religion (which could be seen as a compendium of all of the above).

Naturally, with so much talk on all these exciting subjects we Jews are bound to come to do that which we do almost as well as talk—ask questions and argue! Why not? And not only do we argue with each other, but we even argue with God Himself! However, the Seder doesn't start off in “combative-mode.” There are some internal preparations that we have to make before the arguments take place.

The table is set. Family and friends are gathered around. We are ready for Kiddush. We begin the night's activities with calling God. We call to God and tell Him what we want: the chokhmah (wisdom) of life, the wisdom and understanding to know Him. We do this holding the Kiddush cup filled with wine. Because wisdom does not exist in a vacuum of theory. It exists only in the kelim (vessels) in which it has been demonstrated. So we hold a vessel of wine and remind Him (as it were), and ourselves, that the “vessel” of history holds much of that wisdom: He chose and elevated us; He granted us freedom and gave us a mission. We enjoy the taste of the wine and we savor the opportunity to celebrate with God who has intervened time and again in history, sometimes naturally and sometimes super-naturally, to save us.

After Kiddush we go to Yachatz, breaking the middle matzah. (I skipped a couple of the steps, yes.) One of the meanings of the word matzah is argument, disagreement. Many, many times we or others suffer pain, sometime of excruciating magnitude. We don't understand why what is happening is happening. We have no awareness of the Source of the din (judgement). It seems unfair, or worse, meaningless. This non-awareness is manifested by ChaMeTz (leavened products). The word ChaMeTz differs from the word MaTzaH in just one letter. Chametz has a chet, which is closed, whereas matzah has a heh, which is open. We must “break the leg” of the chet and make it a heh.

The leg of the chet is the sound of the many voices that roar out their message that all events are meaningless, while simultaneously drowning out the call that every event is being worked by God's hand. By “breaking the leg” of the chet we have matzah, we allow some awareness of God into our lives. But that's not enough. For even when we arrive at a modicum of holiness, so much of God still remains hidden. For in Holiness, too, there are many questions. We have to take the middle matzah, the matzah of Levy, and break it. Thus, matzah as argument means specifically an argument for the sake of Heaven.*

“And here the son asks” (Pesachim 116a). Now we are ready to argue with Hashem (God). And we are not arguing just for the sake of it. We are arguing with a purpose—we want to create the world! Because our asking God these questions parallels the arguments of pre-Creation: will the Infinite Light of Hashem, the Father, be pushed aside to make room for Creation, the Son? There must be this “disagreement,” this balanced distance and separation, for otherwise the Father would smother the Son.

Why is this so important on the first night of Pesach? The first night of Pesach was (and is) the nadir of the exile. It is beyond the point of no return. Had we not been freed that night, we would not have been able to become non-slaves and Creation would have lost its raison d'�tre: there would have been no people to raise Hashem's banner and develop His kingdom.

This is why the night of the Seder contains so many deviations from the norm—to get the child to ask: What's this all about?! This is why life contains so many deviations from the norm—to get us to ask: What's this all about?! Thus the “disagreement” is the ultimate in peace, for without it no one would know about Hashem's kingdom.

But, as we know all too well, there is a danger in arguing. We tend to focus on winning and getting our way rather than getting to the Truth; we tend to lose respect for the other party and we use the wrong words. That is one reason why the telling of the Exodus includes a good number of references to the groaning and sighing of the slaves we were: to remind us that we still must groan because of our wrong-doing. This will keep us focused on the Truth.

Rebbe Nachman teaches (Likutey MoHaran I, 11) that words of Torah, which is what the words of our questions are (Maharsha on Bava Metzia 84a, s.v. v'kara manei), can enlighten our lives, can bring us to ever-greater understanding of the Truth, if we speak them out of respect for Torah, for Judaism and for ourselves.

(*The breaking of the middle matzah, which makes the three four, relates to the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and the Matriarchs (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah), but we'll leave that for some other time, God willing.)

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!