A night of anticipation for HaShem

(Exodus 12:42) Nisan 14, 5778/March 30, 2018 Passover is the festival of freedom. For weeks we prepare to reacquire our freedom, to reaffirm our freedom and to celebrate our freedom, by cleaning our homes and our persons of all manners of chametz - leavened food stuffs, and even food stuffs that could potentially become leavened. We do this to the very last speck of chametz, removing it completely from our lives for seven whole days. Leaven causes things to rise, to take up space, to become full of themselves. The material chametz that we diligently remove from our homes in preparation for Passover parallels the spiritual chametz that we are equally diligent in removing from our souls and our psyches and egos, as we prepare for Passover. To fully receive freedom and to fully embrace freedom we need to clear ourselves of our own inflated self importance, of the crumbs that fill our lives and distract us from our purpose and our potential. We replace our chametz with matza, an unleavened, unassuming bread that doesn't bedazzle or bedevil us with idle distractions, the bread of our fathers before they went down to Egypt, before they became bondsmen. When they were free. Passover is the festival of freedom. In Temple times we take for ourselves a lamb, not yet a yearling, unblemished, and accompany it to the Holy Temple courtyard, where it is slaughtered, and eat of it, each one of us, a single morsel, so that all can partake, until all the meat is consumed, and finish it before midnight, as our ancestors did in Egypt, reclining and eating in ease, until it was midnight, the appointed time to leave our slavery behind and leave Egypt forever. The Korban Pesach - Passover Offering - is a bond, a brit, an eternal covenant between ourselves and G-d, a two-party contract, a guarantor of our freedom. Without a commitment to G-d there is no freedom. And what is the freedom we celebrate on Passover? It is the freedom, not of relinquishing responsibility, but of embracing responsibility. It is the freedom, not of doing my own thing, but of doing the thing I was put on earth to do. It is the freedom, not of creating my own story, but of discovering the story my Creator has in store for me. It is the freedom, not of being able to say no when I please, but to say yes, when called upon. It is the freedom, not merely to fulfill my own role as an individual, but to assume my responsibility to my people, to play my part in the unfolding story of my nation and my land, and to the pursuit of the common destiny of all mankind, to know the G-d of Israel and see His presence in our world. Freedom comes at a price, the price of losing our bondage, of walking away from the frivolities and diversions that plagued Egypt then, and that plague our world today. The price is steep but the reward is immeasurable. Passover night "is a night of anticipation for HaShem," (Exodus 12:42), of watchfulness for HaShem. It is only the beginning of freedom, not the fulfillment of freedom. The road to freedom stretches out before us. It leads to Sinai and it leads to Jerusalem. It leads to human dignity and it leads, G-d willing, to peace. The freedom of Passover is the freedom to move forward, to become who we are meant to be, to be G-d's partner in the perfection of the world He created. Chag Kasher veSameach - have a Happy (and kosher) Passover! -The Temple Institute