Mystical Passover Teachings

In this audio recording, Rabbi Ben Newman presents mystical teachings on Passover from Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav (great grandson of the Baal Shem Tov founder of Hasidism), Rav Kook (early 20th century rabbi), and Rabbi Dr. Arthur Green (contemporary Jewish mystical thinker).

Transcript

Shalom.

This is the Neshama Project podcast where we explore teachings that speak to the soul.

I'm Rabbi Ben Newman.

Today,

We're going to be looking at three separate teachings,

One from Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav,

The great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov,

The founder of Chassidism.

The second teaching will be from Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook,

Who lived from 1865 to 1935.

Also known as Rav Kook,

He was the first chief rabbi of Palestine.

And then the third teaching will be a modern teaching from Rabbi Dr.

Arthur Green,

Who is one of the pivotal thinkers in the neo-Chassidic movement,

Also head of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College as well as the dean of Hebrew College in Massachusetts.

So let's start with our teaching from Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav,

A teaching about taking a real leap of faith.

One needs to leave Mitsrayim,

Egypt,

With great haste.

This is the essence of the quote from the Torah,

From Exodus 12 39,

Because they left Mitsrayim,

Egypt,

And couldn't wait,

And also they didn't make provisions for the journey.

This truth is reiterated in each person in every age.

In each person and in each time there can be found remnants of Mitsrayim,

Of Egypt,

Which are the cravings and the troubles of this world.

And this is the essence of the exile in Egypt in Mitsrayim.

In each of our lives,

In every historical time,

The exile of Egypt,

Of Mitsrayim,

Is there in our desires and in our suffering.

And every single one of us knows this feeling of exile,

And each one of us knows the feeling of needing to leave our exile.

This is the essence of Pesach,

Of Passover.

At the moment of the Exodus from Mitsrayim,

From Egypt,

A great light from on high was revealed,

As is known.

And at that time,

Very quickly,

The Israelites went out very fast,

And they couldn't wait.

For even if they had remained there even one more moment,

They would have remained a remnant there,

As is known.

In the moment of making this kind of Exodus,

It is forbidden to worry about Parnassah,

About financial sustenance,

To worry,

But if I do this,

How will I make a living?

Rather,

One must trust in the Holy One,

That the Holy Blessed One will provide.

This is the essence of that quote from the Torah,

From Exodus,

Which says,

And they didn't make provisions,

If someone needs to flee from a dangerous situation,

Like being trapped in a snare,

One wouldn't think about Parnassah,

Financial sustenance,

Or preparations,

Lest one be set upon by thieves or robbers or wild beasts,

From which one would further need to be freed.

One wouldn't pause in that moment of getting oneself out,

To worry about making a living.

The same is true if a person needs to flee from Sheol,

Around and beneath them,

Or from the tribulations of the world,

Turning instead toward what enlivens this world.

One wouldn't look behind oneself at all,

For one must not wait,

Nor worry about Parnassah for financial sustenance,

But trust in the Holy One and rely on the Divine who never leaves us.

That was the teaching from Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav.

Now let's turn to Rabbi Abraham Yitzchak HaKoen Kook from the early 20th century.

This teaching is also about internal states and what we need to do to free ourselves from our metaphorical Egypts,

Our mitzrayims,

So to speak.

Our freedom and burning chametz are leavening.

These are two primary symbols for the holiday of redemption,

The holiday of Passover,

Our time of freedom.

What is the lasting lesson for all generations that we can learn from these two interdependent themes?

The everlasting answer is that there are two components of redemption.

One,

Freedom of the self,

The body's freedom from all foreign enslavements,

From any enslavement that forces the divine image within a person to be subjugated to any power that diminishes their value,

The glory of their greatness,

And the beauty of their sanctity.

And two,

However,

This form of freedom can only be acquired through the freedom of one's soul,

The freedom of one's spirit from anything that causes it to divert from the upright and powerful path that is embedded in its essential nature.

However,

These two types of freedom can only come about,

And an individual or the nation as a whole,

With its own unique spiritual disposition,

Can only merit them by burning from all of its boundaries all that prevents against its freedom.

This is its chametz,

The leavening agent in the dough,

Whose damage is most apparent at a time when the light of redemption is sparking upon it.

We must engage in a process of learning how to cultivate within ourselves the great spirit of freedom that shone upon us during our periods of illumination,

And that emerged like a flash of lightning when it appeared in the initial redemption,

The redemption from Egypt,

When the King of all kings,

The Holy Blessed One,

Was revealed to us in immense glory and brought us close to the divine,

Which itself is our ultimate freedom,

And lifted us up from the denigration of foreign servitude,

Which is a servitude of falsehood.

The difference between a slave and a free person is not merely one of status,

That one happens to be enslaved to another when one is not enslaved.

It's possible to find an enlightened slave whose spirit is filled with freedom,

And,

On the contrary,

A free person whose spirit is that of a slave.

The fundamental character of freedom is the elevated spirit that raises up an individual and the entire nation to be loyal to their inner essence,

To the soul's quality of the divine image within.

And it is through this quality that one is able to feel that their life is purposeful and is worth its value.

This is not the case when one possesses the spirit of servitude,

The content of their life,

And feelings will never shine in their essential soulful quality,

But rather according to what is deemed good and proper by another who rules over them through any form of control,

Be it formally or morally,

According to what the other deems proper and good.

And we,

By the light of the inner light of this essential freedom,

Quote,

Etched upon the tablets,

Do not read this word etched,

Charut,

But rather freedom,

Charut,

Unquote.

That's from Pirkei Avot 6.

2.

We shall journey forward to pronounce more and more our inner replenishing independence,

That which we acquired through the revelation of the Shekhinah,

Through the female divine presence in the world,

Which we acquired through the single most wondrous event in the universe that was performed for us at the moment that the Holy One redeemed us and redeemed our ancestors from Egypt into liberation.

Come along,

My siblings,

All of us to the Seder.

Let it be known to us that we are the children of royalty and a nation for whom freedom is its eternal fate.

Yisrael is no slave nor one born into servitude and shall not be laid to scorn from the moment that they were elevated above from the day of our festival of freedom,

The flag of freedom and the burning of chametz,

Of leavening that will flow like water through our insides and like oil in our bones by means of the powerful force of the holy and reliable generator through upholding the word of the Holy One,

Our Redeemer for all eternity,

Who has commanded us to safeguard the matzot,

The matzah.

Hold fast to freedom and to the burning of chametz and be quickly redeemed in complete redemption.

This teaching from Rav Kook really asks us to find those inner qualities that are chametz,

That are the puffed up aspects of ourselves,

And to burn them up,

Those things that stand in the way of our freedom.

He also calls upon us to remember that we are royalty,

As he says,

That we have an inner innate worth and value and we are important.

And this greatness that is inside of us is important to cultivate because we are important.

We must end our own enslavement and our own suffering so that we can help the world and end the enslavement and the suffering of everybody and bring joy and happiness and the causes of joy and happiness to everyone in the world.

Our last teaching is from Rabbi Dr.

Arthur Green.

He says,

How strange that we should begin the Seder with the statement,

This year we are slaves.

The point is,

According to one Hasidic reading,

That while we recognize our current enslavements,

We also recognize the great distance we have traversed from Egyptian bondage to the sort of slavery we feel in our current lives.

Had someone come to us while we were in Egypt and said,

You know,

Someday you and your children will be telling this tale as though it were all in the past,

We would hardly have believed him.

See how far we have come.

And for those of us who have gone this far in the path of liberation,

Remembering that we once were carriers of brick and mortar,

Nothing in the liberation that lies ahead should seem impossible to us.

So there are elements of us that are still enslaved.

But we should take courage and we should take confidence from the idea that our ancestors were redeemed from a situation that was so much worse.

And we should know that no matter how bad our lives are in this moment,

How many challenges and difficulties we face in our individual lives and in the world,

That we can move towards freedom and redemption for all.

Thank you for listening.

Have a wonderful Pesach and I wish everybody the freedom that comes along with this season.

Take care.

Reviews

Thank you for this great explanations, Rabbi ✨️✡️🕍🧡🙏🏾

Thank you for this teaching:)

This was wonderful and soul elevating, especially in the midst of so much violence and unbelievable hatred of Israel and the jewish people around the world. May Hashem guide us to redemption from so much ignorance, darkness and a double standard treatment (When no one seems to care about what is happening in Ukraine and in Sudan).This year is such a profound meaning for Pessah. thank you and Amen.

Thank you for this fascinating time travel of readings. Chag peach sameach. 🙏🖖