Move with Haste...But Also Slow Down

Between Matzah and Chametz

When Purim ends, Pesach begins, at least in the minds of the Rabbis (and those of us preparing for Passover). After the conclusion of Purim, which happened this past Sunday, the Rabbis suggest we should immediately begin (at least) intellectually preparing for the festival of freedom. We should get our minds right so that we’re not caught off guard when the rush of the holiday hits.

This gives a lot of people anxiety! There’s a real sense of urgency when Pesach begins flashing closer on the calendar. Many people take to this with a sense of haste, which is, in and of itself, laudatory. After all, it’s good to move with purpose. Broadly speaking this is a message that Judaism champions:

The beginning of a person's entrance into the service of God must be rushed. As we find regarding the eating of the first Passover [sacrifice] in Egypt; it was eaten in a rush, but the Passover of subsequent generations was not [eaten in a rush]. For when one begins to cut oneself off from all desires of this world to which one is connected one must be aware of the moment wherein the desire to serve God awakens. One must rush to that moment and hurry to escape, maybe it is then possible. And then, later, one can go along moderately and slowly, like the laws of the Passover of subsequent years.

Tzidkat Ha’Tzadik 1:1 (Tzadok Ha’Kohen of Lublin)

R’Tzadok here notes that it’s actually a great practice in all of our spiritual endeavors to move with haste. His suggestion is to cut yourself off from all of your earthly pursuits which is, admittedly, a bit extreme but chasidut gonna chasidut. Taken to a lesser extreme, if we begin to remember what’s important in life, that awareness gives us the chance to jump quickly into our work.

Notice that he uses the reference to our eating of the Matzah from Egypt which we remind ourselves every year was done b’chipazon, expeditiously. In other words, Matzah becomes a stand in for moving with purpose and haste. Matzah develops into this newness and awakening into a different way to live, full of revelation and meaning making, which is beautiful.

But then a person might ask, if Matzah and moving with haste is so great, why don’t we do it all year!? The Zohar, the seminal mystical text of Judaism anticipates such a question and answers that it’s enough for us to just have this one awakening a year. There’s a subtext here that as much as living with haste is great, we’re not cut out to constantly be living that way all the time. We need to use it sparingly. That’s further elucidated in our portion this week, Tzav, where we read:

אִ֣ם עַל־תּוֹדָה֮ יַקְרִיבֶ֒נּוּ֒ וְהִקְרִ֣יב ׀ עַל־זֶ֣בַח הַתּוֹדָ֗ה חַלּ֤וֹת מַצּוֹת֙ בְּלוּלֹ֣ת בַּשֶּׁ֔מֶן וּרְקִיקֵ֥י מַצּ֖וֹת מְשֻׁחִ֣ים בַּשָּׁ֑מֶן וְסֹ֣לֶת מֻרְבֶּ֔כֶת חַלֹּ֖ת בְּלוּלֹ֥ת בַּשָּֽׁמֶן׃

One who offers it for thanksgiving shall offer, together with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes with oil mixed in—unleavened wafers spread with oil—and cakes of choice flour with oil mixed in, well soaked.

Leviticus 7:12

The offering a person brings for gratitude for having survived something perilous or being freed, the only sacrifice that will exist come redemptive times we are told, is a sacrifice that contains both Matzah the bread of haste, and Chametz, the bread of regularity.

After all that talk of how great haste is, why wouldn’t I want a gratitude offering solely of Matzah? Unless, of course, this whole business of moving with haste is meant to be tempered with something. One cannot subsist on bread (of haste) alone, right?

So agrees Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye, one of the first disciples of the Ba’al Shem Tov:

This means that you should follow the middle line which is graded and moderate, the opposite of haste and flight, which is the inclination to [one of] the two extremes, right or left, which is not constant, but only for the need of the hour. For occasionally one must go with haste, as from Egypt, when their governance was above nature, called haste, as I have explained elsewhere. That was to the far right extreme, for they all offered themselves for the sanctification of God’s name, they took a lamb that was the idol of Egypt and slaughtered, etc. "You shall not go by flight" (ibid.), like one who sets out and must go by flight, so that he not remain there, God forbid. But the middle road is constant so that it will be able to endure. (Toledot Ya'akov Yosef, Ki Tetze 14)

It’s a balance. The haste was good for a time. It allowed us to respond to an exigent circumstance that required moving like that. There are times to utilize it in our lives, but it’s also extreme. One can’t go through life constantly at such fast paces or else they burn out.

Many of us live within cultures that ask us to burn the candle from both ends with regularity. Grind your way to the top by working at a breakneck pace. Sure there are times for that but also pace yourself. Wield your haste wisely. Pesach is coming but not so soon. There’s always enough time to do the right work.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Weekend!