By Rabbi
Yisroel Shusterman
This
week’s Parsha Perspective is dedicated by Mr. Binyomin Philipson in memory of
his late mother Mrs. Ellen (Elka bas Zisel) Philipson OBM
We open the Pesach
Seder eve with the traditional: Mah nishtanah halailah hazeh... "Why is
this night different from all other nights?" which our children ask us.
Because, we answer, we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and G-d set us free.
Free? Are you free?
Can a person with a
mortgage be free? Can a person with a job be free? Can a person without a job
be free?
Freedom! Is there
anything more desired yet more elusive? Is there a need more basic to our
souls, yet so beyond our reach? How, indeed, do we achieve freedom from the
demands, cares and burdens of daily living?
But look at your
child. Observe her at play, immersed in a book, asleep and smiling at her
dreams. Assured that father and mother will feed him, protect him and worry
about all that needs worrying about, the child is free. Free to revel in her inner
self, free to grow and develop, open to the joys and possibilities of life.
This is why
Passover, the festival of freedom, is so much the festival of the child. For it
is the child who evokes in us the realization that we, too, are children of
G-d, and are thus inherently and eternally free. It is the child who opens our
eyes to the ultimate significance of Passover: that in taking us out of Egypt
to make us His chosen people, G-d has liberated us of all enslavement and
subjugation for all time.
The child is the
most important participant at the Passover Seder. The entire Seder is
constructed around the goal to mystify the child, to stimulate his curiosity,
to compel him to ask: Why is this night different from all other nights?
The child asks, and
we answer. But there is another dialogue taking place -- a dialogue in which we
ask, and the child explains.
Take a good look at
your child this Passover. Pay her close attention -- enter her mind, view
reality from his perspective. The child feels freedom due to his/her absolute
sense of trust and security in her parents. So we, the parent and adult, must
have that same of sense of trust and security in our “parent” – our Father in
Heaven!
For how else might
we taste freedom?
(From Chabad.org
– content by Rabbi Yanki Tauber)
May you have a meaningful and uplifting
Shabbos and
A Kosher and Joyous Holiday of Pesach to
all!
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