Past, Present, and Future

Freedom Forever

*A short-ish post today because of the crunch of the holiday, travel, and a longer post scheduled to come on Sunday

Our 1.5 year old son Cal absolutely loves music and dancing. If any music comes on in our house, ranging from super Jewy to bass-thumping hip hop, he immediately pulls out his array of dance moves: a deep and repetitive squat, wild hand claps, and a meditative head rotation. Earlier this week, it was especially joyous to watch Cal and the child of our dear friends who were in town for Passover this week go absolutely bonkers at the seder for the music.

They swayed, bounced, and laughed with unbridled enjoyment. They seemed so unencumbered which is a a joyous gift that our children give to us. There was something so elemental about them in this moment. They embodied freedom.

This was a fitting day to be celebrating that. After all, one of the names of Passover is zman cheruteinu-the festival of freedom. All the holidays we celebrate have multiple names. Shavuot, the holiday of revelation is called zman matan torateinu-the holiday of the giving of the Torah whereas Sukkot is called zman simchatenu-the holiday of happiness.

Riffing on these names, the Slonimer Rebbe, Sholom Noach Berezovsky notes that while all these days celebrate historical moments in time, they all are meant to be marked in the present too. Which is to say, the joy, the revelation, and the freedom are both a portal back in time and into our current lives.

Passover, he argues:

is the head of all the festivals because they all drink from it as a source. That is why it serves as the lead up to the revelation of Shavuot. You can't merit to receive the wisdom of Torah or feel the unbridled joy of sukkot if you are enslaved.

Passover has the power to transport us. Anyone who has celebrated a seder knows this. It sends up backward to seders of yesteryear. There is a freedom in that to escape the present. And yet, that freedom is meant to exist in the here and now.

The preparation that we make for the holiday is meant to go beyond the physical preparation to the soul level. We are meant to begin the process of severing our ties to the sitra achra, the evil force that waylays us in our lives. That way, when we get to the holiday, we can feel true freedom. Right here, right now, freedom is accessible.

That is what I saw in Cal and his pal at the seder. To be fully in the moment sometimes means letting yourself go and swaying to the music around you. The holiday is only halfway over. Freedom doesn’t have a deadline. Tap into that feeling in the remaining days. Freedom happened in Egypt and it’s also happening right around you in this very moment. Let yourself be taken in by its call and its rhythm.

Shabbat Shalom, Moed Tov, and Happy Weekend

Adir