Kaballah for a Post Oct 7 Seder

The exodus is not a response to slavery. We are destined to experience both slavery and freedom long before Pharoh came along. It was part of the journey of peoplehood

To consider:

1. Being a stranger, traveling, slavery, and then freedom...Why are these things a prerequisite for Jewish nation building?

2. What does this mean for us in this moment?

"One Must See Oneself" by Chen Artzi Saror,

One must see oneself as one who came out of Be’eri. Out of K’far Aza. Out of S’derot. Out of Ofakim. Remember and do not forget until the final day. Not to seed more fear: but to ready our hope. Elderly will again sit on the lawns of Be’eri, The streets of S’derot will fill with children playing. Torched houses will be painted over, Plowed fields will be furrowed and tomatoes will be picked. The existential threat will be removed. This is not a prophecy of consolation THIS is our next agenda.

Sometimes redemption is slow, but at other times we are told to "Leap" to Freedom.

The Three Names of Passover

פֶּ֖סַח "To Leap"

חַ֥ג הַמַּצּ֖וֹת "Festival of Matzah"

What does leaping have to do with freedom?

How is freedom connected to responsibility?

First Step: An abundance Mindset: The Prerequisite to Leaving Egypt

Second Step: Acceptance and Hope for This Moment

The Hillel Sandwich

Radically accept bitterness, then wrap it in an abundance mindset and dip it in sweetness

Third step: Acknowledging Brokenness and Bitterness Helps us Heal

Rabbi Alona Lisitza, an Israeli Reform Rabbi, offers the following prayer to be offered as we break the middle matzah:

“This year our heart is also divided, half of it here, around the table, is filled with joy and great gratitude for the family and our togetherness, for our freedom, for our full cups, for all the goodness with which we have been blessed.

And the other half is in Gaza, with our captives, who have neither freedom nor redemption nor do they have “Seder” (order) in their lives.

At the same time, the heart is found in many places around Israel, in the houses where the families of the captives are and empty places around their tables.

Our heart is broken into pieces.

This pain is sharp, and piercing, and wears away in our daily routine.

This year we will give this pain and this brokenness a place in our Seder.”*

Fourth Step: Freedom Requires a Beginner's Mind, Cultivate a Questioning Mindset

?מַה נִּשְׁתַּנָּה הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה מִכָּל הַלֵּילוֹת: The question is also the answer:

The Ma (the question) is what makes this night different from all other nights.

חָכְמָה: Wisdom is the "Power of What?" כח מָה

Fifth Step: Watch your Thoughts: Bitterness Is Sometimes a State of Mind

“Matzah represents two apparently contradictory ideas. At the beginning of the seder we describe it as ‘the bread of oppression our fathers ate in the land of Egypt.’ Ibn Ezra explains that slaves were given unleavened bread because, being hard, it takes longer to digest. It removes hunger longer than ordinary bread. Later in the seder, we describe it as a symbol of redemption, the bread the Israelites ate as they were leaving Egypt….. We divide the Matzah, therefore, to show that it has two symbolisms…at the beginning of the seder it is the bread of oppression. Later, once we have relived the Exodus, it becomes the bread of freedom and we eat it as the Afikomen.

The difference between freedom and slavery lies not in the quality of bread we eat, but in the state of mind in which we eat it.”

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory

Sixth Step: Consider your Habits

The Hardening of Pharoh's Heart: The Iron Hold of Habits:

The expression: "the hardening of Pharoh's heart" appears 22 times in the exodus narrative. It seems that God forced his hand. Kaballah explains that the hardening of his heart was a natural consequence of the way we were created. The more we behave in a certain way, the less likely it is that we will behave differently. Our actions become our destiny.

But we can also reverse the process. The heart is a soft organ. It only hardens when blood stops flowing into it. To begin to change our destiny, we need to begin to allow the flow of empathy, growth, and commitment to change. The first plague turned cold water into hot blood. It was more than a punishment, it was a symbol of the process of true freedom.

Our Children Bring Us Wholeness:

The Koznitzer Rebbe says about the breaking of the middle matza and the hiding of the bigger half for the Afikomen:

"Everyone of us contains a broken world but our children can help make our worlds whole again. We break the matza and our children take away the larger part of our brokenness. Then they bring it back to us when we feel open and free, at the end of the Seder. Our children can teach us to become whole again, even with our broken pieces."