An appreciation note from the holidays: “Every year we are criticized for never seeming to come out at a convenient time for you (sigh..). We are relieved to share that we have received a record few complaints this year being that the holiday days are on weekends, including the Seders. At a board meeting this afternoon we have decided to repeat the exact same schedule for next year’s Passover. Next year in Jerusalem! Sincerely yours, The Holidays 🙂 ” All kidding aside, There is actually a very deep message we can learn from the fact that Pesach begins and ends with Shabbat this year, a concept that gets to the heart of freedom.
Shabbos is not just a day to abstain from work, it is also a day devoted to seeking our own spiritual center, to better attune ourselves to the self that is one with the divine essence of all. Just as Shabbos rest is more than the absence of toil, so, too, the freedom of Passover is a dynamic freedom, not merely the absence of bondage.
Throwing off one’s fetters does not necessarily mean that one has entered into a state of freedom. Slavery is that condition in which a person is always subject to the will of another. Freedom, on the other hand, is the ability to act upon, and carry out, one’s own independent will. To be in tune with one’s soul’s deepest desires and live a focused life dedicated to those values…
May you forever be free! Rabbi Mendel Bluming