Chol Hamoed Pesach

Shimmy Miller	10:31 AM (4 hours ago)
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Quote of the Week: “We have the choice to focus on what is lost or fight for what is left.”

Miller’s Musings

for חול המועד פסח

All That’s Left

The Yom Tov of Pesach seems to be somewhat synonymous with the word ‘haste’. It seems that almost everything is done in a rush. From the last minute cleaning, the burning of the last remnants of chometz on the morning before and the desperate attempt to consume the afikomen before midnight. Everything is done speedily and this is of course no coincidence. For when the Jewish people finally left Egypt after centuries of servitude it was done in great haste. It was a last ditch attempt to save the Jewish people from plunging into an everlasting descent into impurity from which they would never be able to escape. But why leave it until such a desperate moment? Why court disaster rather than releasing them long before they came so close to plummeting over the cliff’s edge?

The analogy of a seed’s germination, that helps to answer this question, is well-known. It is only when the seed is almost entirely decomposed that the root grows and the process of development begins. Says the Nesivos Sholom, a seed disintegrates until all that remains is its essential life force, from which point it then begins to sprout. It cannot begin anew, until all that it was has perished. Yet if its entirety has vanished, there is nothing left to arise from. So too the Jewish people in Egypt, in order to undergo a rebirth, needed to be at that point where they had lost almost everything, except for that last shred of their soul that remained connected. It was at that imperceptible moment, as they had lost almost everything, but had not yet lost it all, that they needed to be redeemed, with tremendous rapidity, to ensure there was still that potential for renewal. This alacrity was the entire reason our salvation could take place and the reason it takes such a prominent role in these holy days.

Every person has this ember within them. This tiny, last connection, which is their belief in Hashem. It is that spark of a person’s soul, buried deep within, that is its very foundation, rooted in truth and faith. It is for this reason that no matter how low we sink, we have this eternal flame of belief entrenched within us. It is the prayer that we cry out to Hashem when most desperate, “from the depths I have called you Hashem.” It does not just mean the simple interpretation, from the depths of despair and tragedy, but also from the depths of my soul. From that deepest part that is so intrinsically bonded with Hashem. It is from this point that redemption will always begin and it must therefore surely be that part of ourselves that needs closest attention when we need deliverance. This is not just redemption as an individual but also as a people. It will come in the swiftest moment, in the blink of an eye, as redemption must. We must maintain and strengthen our belief in its arrival and Hashem’s presence in our lives, so that it comes for us soon, speedily in our days.

*May Pesach usher in the days of ultimate, everlasting redemption*

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Shimmy Miller
Rebbe/Teacher/Counsellor/Tutor| Manchester Mesivta and Private
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