Pesach: An Opportunity to Reflect
Rabbi Eric Gurvis is Director of Chaverim and Outreach at The Mussar Institute where this Dvar Torah was first published. He is also the rabbi of Sha'arei Shalom in Ashland, MA.
Photo by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash
This Shabbat is Shabbat HaGadol, the Sabbath immediately preceding Pesach, our Festival celebrating Freedom and Redemption.
We are preparing to gather with family, friends, and neighbors around our Seder tables. We are cleaning our homes and preparing our festival foods and celebrations.
Many of us find this a season of hitbonenut / reflection as we review our lives since Pesach one year ago.
In studying this week’s parsha I came upon a teaching from Rav Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik [1], which illuminates not only an aspect of our parsha with its many laws about the korbanot / burnt sacrificial offerings of earlier times, but also holds a message for our approaching celebration of Pesach!
In Leviticus 7:12 we read about the sacrifice of thanksgiving (called todah) that was offered in the Jerusalem Temple…
In Sefer Or Chadash, Rabbi Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik cites a teaching from Midrash Vayikra Rabbah [2] where we read:
Rabbi Pinchas, Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Yochanan [said] in the name of Rabbi Menachem from Gallia: In the time to come, all sacrifices will be annulled - but the sacrifice of thanksgiving (todah) will not be annulled. All prayers will be annulled, but the prayer of gratitude (hoda’ah) will not be annulled…
Rav Zaitchik asks:
“How is the [prayer for] gratitude connected to the time to come [3]? Do we not offer a prayer for gratitude only on account of a neys / miracle such as our being saved physically; the salvation of our family or relatives [from danger]; the salvation of our children or of a sefer Torah? In times to come, all these necessities will be annulled as there will be no hunger, or thirst, no poverty nor wealth, sickness nor health. There will be no worldly problems… [4]
Imagining the coming Messianic age, Rav Zaitchik is asking, in those days, why would we need sacrifices or prayers of gratitude?
He suggests that one way to understand this is that we will be thanking God for all that God has done for us and for our people in the past.
Our acts and prayers will be about all that preceded the Messianic age. Once that age has come, “the glory of God will be revealed to us, and all of the sodot / secrets regarding God’s acts and behavior will be [clarified] in this world.” [5]
Rav Zaitchik explains that we may find God’s presence and conduct to be very difficult to understand in light of our complicated times...
As a Holocaust survivor. Rav Zaitchik surely has deep, personal understanding of how one can feel challenged as regards God’s Presence and involvement in challenging times.
While we are not living in the darkness of the Shoah, our time, too, has its ample share of challenges and concerns.
Some will undoubtedly be challenged by Rav Zaitchik’s perspective, as he teaches that all that seems bad and evil in our world is ultimately good and evidence of God’s hesed / lovingkindness.
He cites our Sages who teach that in the midst of challenges, we don’t presently perceive that hesed.
Indeed, Rav Zaitchik explains that the Todah / Thanksgiving offerings of the future will constitute an endless stream of our thanking God for all the unperceived good that the Holy One has done throughout the generations to compensate for our shortsightedness!
Each of us approaches bitachon (trust in God) and Emunah (faith) from our own understanding of God’s place and role in our world. Yet, we all come to the celebration of Pesach yearning for greater spiritual freedom.
Each of us is called to “see ourselves as if we personally had gone forth from Egypt.” Our Mussar work can help us put all that we experience in our lives, and all that we see in the world around us, into some perspective.
Ideally, our work with our soul traits helps us clarify what we experience even as we work at hakarat hatov – seeing the good in our lives, even amidst the challenges of our lives and times.
May the coming week’s celebration bring us many opportunities to reflect on the good in our lives, even as we recognize that we are still in meytzarim - in the “narrow straits” [a play on the word mitzrayim / Egypt] of lives in which we face challenges.
May our sedarim and our visualization of our own journeys towards freedom inspire us to deepen our hitbonenut / reflection, our Mussar work and our pursuit of kedushah / holiness.
KAVANNOT FOR REFLECTION:
- In our time, we do not offer korbanot / burnt offerings by fire like our ancestors in earlier times. If you were going to bring a todah / thanksgiving offering, what would you call to mind as you make your offering at this season?
- How is your middah / soul trait of bitachon / trust strengthened or challenged by your preparations for and celebration of Pesach?
- As you approach this year’s Pesach observance, which middot / soul traits are at the forefront of your mind and soul as you prepare to see yourself as having personally gone forth from Egypt?
[1] Rabbi Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik (1905-1989) was a disciple of the Novardok Yeshivotand founded the Novardok Yeshivah in Buchach (Galicia). In 1960, he made aliya to Israel where he served as spiritual head of Yeshivat Tife'eret Ha'Carmel in Haifa and held Mussar talks all over the country. He later moved to Jerusalem, where he established Yeshivat Or Chadash and continued teaching Torah and Mussar. He is also the author of Sparks of Mussar (Feldheim).
[2] Midrash Vayikra Rabbah 9:6
[3] The future, Messianic time, of salvation.
[4] This teaching can be found in Chochmat HaMatzpun, volume 7, pages 99-100.
[5] ibid
Shabbat Shalom!
