Dvar Torah for Pesach

Rebbe Nachman teaches that each of the shalosh regalim (three festivals: Pesach, Shavuot, Sukot) brings with it its own specific mochin (insights). These mochin help us to overcome and undo the damage caused by the three primary lusts (money, sex, food). In particular they restore the fear of God lost due to having/engaging in these lusts. While there are elements common to all the holidays, each element is emphasized on a particular one. Much of what relates to Pesach (Passover), for example the wealth the Israelites took out of Egypt and using our finest utensils at the Seder, is connected to money. Rebbe Nachman teaches that the mochin of Pesach relate specifically to the desire for money.

What has breaking the desire for money have to do with Pesach? Pesach is about redemption, freedom from oppressors. Money is liberating, isn't it? It allows us to buy what we want , travel where we like, gain entree to places we want to be, and tell our employers to get lost! One is inclined to think not that money is the root of all evil, but that not having it is! Which is in fact so (Rabbi Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld, o.b.m.).

Our Sages teach us (Kiddushin 20a) that one who acquires a Jewish slave has not bought himself a slave–he's bought himself a master! This is because the master must provide for his slave the same quality diet and lodgings that he, the master, enjoys. What's more, if the master has only one pillow he is obligated to give it to the slave (Tosafot s.v. kol)!

Similarly, the money we want(ed) to liberate us ends up becoming our master. We become its devoted, faithful slave. We spend so much time thinking about how to get it, how to spend it, about not having enough of it and that others have more! We forget that money teases us–we are never satisfied with what we have and we must have more.

So we expend a good deal of thought, time and energy on money. More, perhaps, than we do on God. By granting so much prestige and so much of life to money we make it an idol. 'When there is idolatry in the world, there is Divine anger in the worldÓ (Sifri 13:18). In fact, the Rebbe writes that the craving for money is inclusive of every kind of idolatry. It leads to worship of self, to worship of things, and to flattery. We forget that there is a power higher than money. We forget that there is a higher power than can free us from the Egyptian taskmaster.

Rebbe Nachman writes that when Mashiach (Messiah) comes there will be no more desire for money: 'On that day mankind will throw away its idols of silver and its idols of goldÓ (Isaiah 2:20). That's what Pesach is about–redemption, freedom from our oppressors.