Kosot

Dear friends,

It starts before the Seder.    

Soon we will be there. Most of you probably don’t generally go to shul for Maariv but you might consider making the night of the Seder an exception. It’s the only time that we say Hallel at night.

Imagine what your great-greats (grandparents, great uncles and aunts and even further) were feeling that night in Egypt. The first two paragraphs of Hallel are there to bring you to feeling something of the joy that they felt at that place and time as you say the words, “Let the servants of Hashem praise Him.” Were they servants of Hashem back in Egypt? Some of them were, but most of them were far from it. You could have been there. Even picture one of your great-greats evolving from being a person with no hope, no future, no real means of distinguishing himself from the Egyptians who were continually busy making his life hell, to being someone who lives to serve Hashem. Any kind of “serving” can sound rather grim. Yet, serving Hashem is the source of joy. How?
If you were a great violinist, would you feel that playing another hour is expressing you or crushing you? It makes demands, that violin of yours. It doesn’t let you fool yourself. But it also gives you all that you want, all that you dream of when you hear its beauty and its wholeness and realize that it is you. Being enslaved to Hashem is different. Better. Incomparably more real. The violin is unfeeling, has no soul, has nothing of its own. Hashem is the Soul of the world; He is the Source and gives freely. He gives you what you wanted from the moment of your birth – connection. It’s what you want when you spend time with your best friend or enter a happy marriage. Hallel gives expression to what is usually mute.

The rest of Hallel is different. It praises Hashem not only for what we see but also for what we don’t see. We call out to Hashem from the place of feeling crushed, the “meitzar”, which is the same root as the word Mitzraim. We express the realization that He will answer us and give us the inner and outer space to breathe that we all want.

How do you tap into maariv on Pesach? The sefer that I am taking most of this from, Byam Darkecha, suggests trying to maintain focus when saying your request for peace, and asking that it be “With the light of Your face.”

Next step  

Now you are ready to take this all to the physical world, the world of matzah and marror and the rest. It’s the world for Hashem’s Seder, Hashem’s sense of order, and you are entering it.

The four cups of wine are parallel to the four expressions used for the Redemption: “He took us out,” “He rescued us,” “He redeemed us,” and “He took us to Him.” The Maharal relates the four cups of wine at the Seder to the four matriarchs. This brings the way that women experience Hashem into the Seder as being the source of the people we are today, in the same way that the three Avos did – they, however, are symbolized by the three matzos.
Women love to understand. When you take a psych course, by and large, the majority of the class is female. Understanding is analogous to a stream coming forth from the ocean. It makes it possible for the flow to be reduced, and to be directed towards the other. The first Kos is drunk after you just heard Kiddush. You can now step back, and “hear” Hashem’s simultaneous greatness, and His connection to you (not just as part of the people, but as an individual piece of the puzzle).

YOU TOOK US OUT OF IRRELEVANCE.  YOU TOOK ME OUT OF MITZRAIM.

I am like Sarah, who began life in a place that was far away from where her life ultimately took her.

The second Kos is drunk with maggid, the part of the Seder where you actually speak out the story of the enslavement and the exodus. Step back. Think about what an amazing privilege it is to be able to relate to the One Who broke every law of nature to get the Jews out of Egypt, Who is the essence of life itself, and is in control of everything that we call nature. What would your life have been if you never were able to hear about who He is, and what He has done?

Listen to yourself….

HE RESCUED ME.

I had close calls both spiritually and physically. He wants me here, and cares about me. I am Rivka who was at the well at the right moment, the moment that Eliezer came, and was rescued from the horror of the life I would have had growing up with the society that generated Lavan and Besuel. I was rescued.
The third Kos is said with birkat hamazon (or benching for those of you who are heimish. I doubt anyone who reads my letter thinks of it as Grace). Reflect on how from the day you were born, you were sustained by Hashem who provided you with everything that brought you to this day.

HE REDEEMED ME.

The Maharal says redemption means returning to yourself and being who you can be. Every time you eat, Hashem invests in you. He lets you see His care and love, and that can bring you back to yourself. I am like Rachel, who was the mainstay of Yaakov’s house although she was the mother of only two of the twelve tribes. She nurtured everyone with whom she came in contact in a real-world way. She was sustained, and sustained others.
The last Kos is said with Hallel, and tells you that Hashem is not only the author of the exodus, He is also the author of the future redemption

HE TOOK ME

And will continue bringing me to where I need to be, just as he took Leah from her assumed fate of marriage to Eisov to being the mother of Levi, the holiest of the tribes, and Yehudah, the tribe that was chosen to lead.

For you Oldies but Goodies. I just went to Rabbi Teller’s son’s wedding. Just one more to go!

​Love, chag sameach and eat only kosher!!!!!
Tziporah