One of the hallmark statements of Passover is that on Seder night, everyone should have a personal experience of geulah, of liberation from the bondage of slavery. From a purely physical perspective, after weeks of hard work preparing for Pesach (Passover), scrubbing and cleaning and boiling and shlepping (toting), it is relatively easy to feel freedom by sitting down to the seder (except for serving and cleaning up from the meal!). Intellectually, we can understand the idea that nullifying our physical hametz (leaven) correlates to a cleansing of the soul from theyetzer hara—the evil inclination. However, do we truly experience this cleansing? Do we come out of Pesach with a greater ability to control our lower urges? Do we find a greater ability to perceive Hashem’s (G-d’s) presence while performing our daily activities (increased d’vekut)? The truth is that most of us do not experience such an increased awareness--certainly not a sustained one. So how can we experience geulah—redemption?
Consider the relationship between geulah—redemption and it’s opposite, galut—exile. The root of both these words is gal—wave. The difference is that geulah has an aleph—the first Hebrew letter which represents the Unity of Hashem. Life is a wave of ups and downs. Sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant. When we become fully aware that these ups and downs are truly an expression of the Unity of Hashem, we are experiencing the wave—gal—with the aleph, which is geulah. When we are not perceiving that unity, then we are in a state of exile—galut—the wave without the aleph.
So geulah is a state of recognizing the oneness of G-d. However, just having an intellectual knowledge is not enough. Relatively little attention is given to having an emotional experience onseder night. In fact, almost all of Torah as it is implemented today is focused on the intellectual. This is due to an exaggerated focus on the first part of the verse, “V’yadaata hayom v’hashevotha el l’vavecha ki Hashem hu HaElokim—You shall know today and return it to your heart that Hashem is G-d.” From this verse, the reasoning goes that the head must lead the heart. However, in order for “the head to lead the heart”, there must be a heart to lead.
In order for a mitzvah (poorly translated as commandment—better translated as action or inaction which serves as a vessel forkedushah—G-dLight) to be complete, it must be performed with an emotional awareness ofsimchah—joy. Kabbalistically, the reason for this is that the mitzvah channels kedushah from the highest to the lowest levels. This is called komah shlaymah. So for a mitzvah to be complete, it must include thought, intent, speech, feeling and action. Thus, a mitzvah must be performed with feeling.
One of the greatest obstacles to feeling joy in any moment is having an incomplete “story.” Our story is how we explain what happens to us. If something inconvenient or painful happens to us, we will tend to be upset or sad or afraid. That is because we forgot the true story. The Torah’s story is that life is paradoxical. At each moment, we have 100% free choice while simultaneously being puppets of 100% Divine providence. When we use our free choice to focus on the Divine providence side of the equation, the Torah story is “Kol d’avid Rachmana l’tav avid—Everything that the All-Merciful One does is for good.” If that is our story, then we can use our free choice to experience joy even when something painful happens, may Hashem protect us. This way, even if, G-d forbid, the guests are late, or the children are acting up or the food gets cold or the beautiful wine glass breaks or I’m not sure I ate enough matzah or my spouse didn’t do exactly what I wanted, or the horseradish turned green or the lettuce turned brown—no matter what—I recognize that it’s all from Hashem, all for the good and full of the greatest love and joy.
Using our free choice to focus on the Divine providence that everything is from Hashem and for the good allows us to choose to feel joy. Please note, WE MUST CHOOSE TO FEEL. If we do not concentrate our awareness on the feeling, our joy will be a vague sensation. Geulahmandates a full awareness of joy and love. Experiencing such joy and love allows in turn for an even greater ability to perceive the Oneness of Hashem. If we do this during our seder then we have the komah shlaymah of thought, intent to do G-d’s will by fulfilling the mitzvoth of Passover, speech from our saying the haggadah, and our personal prayers, and actions of performing the mitzvoth. It is all one wave. We experience the gal with the aleph and are thus in a state of geulah. Then, armed with love and joy in our hearts from the recognition of Hashem’s Oneness in our heads, we can take the experience with us into the rest of the year, becoming more aware of Hashem’s presence in our daily activities and more able to subjugate our physical desires to His service. As more and more of us achieve such a level of individualgeulah, it lays the foundation for Hashem to reveal the geulah shlaymah—the total, worldwide redemption, may it happen soon with no more delays. Amen!