Dvar Torah for Pesach

We were discussing Likutey Moharan II, Lesson #74 a few of us were, the
lesson in which Rebbe Nachman teaches that Purim is a path to Pesach and,
that once upon a time all beginnings were from Pesach, but now... and he
stopped in the middle.

So we were discussing that once upon a time, in the beginning when the
Jewish people were young and we were still known as Israelites, all
beginnings were from Pesach, from faith, from being wide-eyed and amazed at
the miraculous changes that could take place: natural, personal, communal,
global. All beginnings were based on faith in the promise of deliverance
that our founders had received and on the messenger sent to carry out that
promise.

Now... and the Rebbe stopped in the middle. He didn't say it, but he implied
that now, when we've grown old and weary, tired of the suffering, the
persecution and the constant internal bickering, now the beginning, the
re-beginning, starts from Purim-joy, the joy that we learned and experienced
as a last-minute "miracle"; no hailstorms, no locusts, no plagues of any
kind, just an unexpected turn of events precipitated by Jews coming together
to pour out their hearts to God. The joy we celebrate in costumes and masks,
silly rhymes and silly songs, playing nicely with others and drinking from
our bottles. The joy that makes us so childlike. So we can believe again.

So we can come back to the Seder table child-eyed, able to look at events
with wonder and amazement, aware that the means and results of redemption
and deliverance are beyond our imagination.

We're not in denial -- the saltwater and *charoset* remind us of the tears
and the blood that litter our history. But to remember them only is to be
old and grumpy, to feel that the story is over and to accept failure as a
ceiling. That is not the way. "It is not good to be old, not an even an old
tzaddik or an old chassid," says the Rebbe. If our suffering is real, then
our Purim is even more so. Purim is the way we must follow -- it leads to
our destiny.