Avodas HaKodesh asks, "If the Torah existed 2000 years before the world was created, how could it assume that the Jews were going to have to experience the future exile in Egypt?" The Shalo gives an answer which Tsemach Tsedek elaborates. The answer is that the creation of our world was itself through the process of contraction (known as tzimtzum) so that our entire existence is an exile into an Egypt.The Hebrew for Egypt, Mitzrayim, is related to the term meitzar, which refers to boundaries and limitations (Torah Or, Va'eira 57b ff, Beshalach 64a-b; Yisro 71c). That each person must see oneself each year as being redeemed from Egypt means that one must experience a growth spurt out from limitations of daily life that prevent one from thinking and feeling creatively. R. Meir ibn Gabbai who wrote the Avodas HaKodesh himself departed from Spain and its Inquisition to write his sefarim.
The Haggadah states "'In the beginning our fathers served idols". This means that on a personal level, last year we can be reckoned as idol worshippers relative to what we can accomplish in serving HaShem this upcoming year. This year there is a Shabbos Chol HaMoed Pesach on which we recite the Haftorah of the "Valley of Dry Bones" (Yechezkal Chapter 37). This has been related on a personal level to being resurrected from a state of spiritual death to serving HaShem with new energy (also see Shem Mishmuel / Avnei Nezer, Yesod HaAvodah [Slonim], Ishbitz, and others). One need not wait for the final redemption to be redeemed; this Pesach, as every Pesach, one can expand one's own horizons and get out of one's box!
Comments