The Deep Breath Before the Plunge
(After Pesaḥ my plan is to ideally send something out once a week. And while I have ideas in mind, if there’s a halakhic or philosophical topic you’d love to learn more about, feel free to reply to this email to give me some ideas of what I could address.)
At some point today, be it with a few hours before Yom Tov begins or a few brief seconds before the Seder, all of the chaos of the past few days – and weeks – all of the preparations for Pesaḥ, will have been done.
Quiet will finally reign. Calmness will finally be in the air.
It’s at this point that you’re likely to feel contented: we’ve made it to another Pesaḥ.
I hate to break it to you, but this is not the time to pat yourself on the back, it’s not the time to feel relaxed.
It’s just the deep breath before the plunge.
The point of Seder night – the entire point of Pesaḥ – is for us to spend the night (and then an entire week) reflecting on what it means to be free, what it means to serve God. To illustrate to the One who freed our ancestors our devotion and appreciation towards His miraculous interventions in our lives.
All of our effort until now was simply the preparation and rehearsal for the show itself.
And so, if you’re reading this as you’ve finally sat down – done with everything you needed to do – it’s time to get back up, grab a Haggadah or a Ḥumash, and continue learning and appreciating the meaning of Pesaḥ.
It’s time to take the plunge.
Have a ḥag kasher ve-sameaḥ.