MORE ABOUT THE HOLISTIC HAGGADAH
The text used is the standard Ashkenazi version. The translation of the main text and the two levels of commentary are by Michael Kagan. The translation of the Hallel Psalms, the Blessings over the Meal, the Nishmat (The Breath) prayer and the Nirzah (Conclusion) prayer are by Reb Zalman. It is a great honor and opportunity for all of us that he has agreed to the inclusion of his translations. Whereas I have tried to extract meaning through exactitude, Reb Zalman has given multi-dimensional inspiration through poetry and poetic license. You will find that these translations are prayerful and actually fit the tempo and meter of the Hebrew; they can therefore be said or sung harmoniously in the two languages at the same time.
Michael Kagan has been sharing the teachings of Holistic Judaism through experiential workshops and lectures in Israel and around the world. He recently spent two years with his family living in Boulder, Colorado, where he learned with Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the architect of Jewish Renewal Theology. He moved to Jerusalem from England in 1977, has a PhD in Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is married to Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan and has five children. He describes himself as being an orthopracticing but unorthodox Jew.
Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi is a master of prayer. His great knowledge of the prayer tradition and his sensitivity to language and music allows him great freedom to experiment with sounds and rhythm in order to perfectly determine the appropriate word or phrase in the vernacular that will stir the heart and rise the soul. (More about Reb Zalman)
Sandra Pond is an artist living and working in
Boulder, Colorado. Everything she sets her hands to do is in
celebration of her relationship with God.
All that she desires is to help create the vessel for the Presence of
God to dwell. She
thus demonstrates, through personal example, how God is the potter and we are
the clay. She has been married 28 years and has two sons. Sandra can be reached
at mailto:tshuva@earthlink.net
(To see Sandra’s paintings in color)
The search for hametz around the house takes place in the dark under the scrutinizing light of a single candle. Take time to look scrupulously within for parts of yourself that have fermented and gone sour, that have become “old stuff,” out-dated. But be gentle; search with a candle but clean with a feather, not a pneumatic drill or chain saw. It is so easy to hurt ourselves more, to beat ourselves up, to be our own taskmasters. Flood yourself with the light of awareness and purification but let the accusing mind be still.
The ten pieces of hidden bread represent the parts of our own Tree of Life that have become fermented and have become barriers to the Divine flow.
There is a custom of burning the hametz using the lulav (palm frond), kept from Succot half a year earlier, as kindling. What a beautiful example of Jewish recycling! The palm branch that was so tall, straight and proud is now withered and frayed. Its backbone has collapsed. It’s time for change. It’s time for a resurrection. Throw it into the flames. It’s time to come out of Mitzraim. It’s time to start another cycle in the spiral of life.
Why, specifically on Shabbat, are two principle candles lit? The two candles represent the duality of the world as we generally experience it. This is the letter ב (bet), the first letter of the Bible, which has a numerical value of two. This is the illusion of our existence: there is I and thou, inside and outside, male and female; there is God and there is me. Where is the true reality? In the letter that comes before the bet. Where is it? It’s in the silent, invisible א (aleph), which equals the number one. So for six days of the week we live our lives in continuous struggle or tension with this duality. On Shabbat we can become dis-illusioned (freed from illusions) and settle back into the One. And so the Shabbat is called the ONE. This is the offering of the Shabbat – to remember that we are ONE. And when Shabbat ends we light a havdalah candle, which is made from a number of wicks intertwined to form one flame. The two have become ONE. In a similar way the hallah bread of a regular Shabbat consists of many braids fusing into the ONE. And so it is for male and female to become ONE, especially on the Shabbat.
Seder literally means “order.” Pesah follows
after Purim. Purim is the festival that celebrates the hidden hand of order in
the chaos of our regular lives. The Book of Esther doesn’t even contain a
mention of God’s name, hand or direct intervention in the unfolding of history.
Everything seems to occur randomly, with no rhythm or reason. God’s face is
hidden. By reading the Megillah (lit.: “scroll,” but also “to reveal”) and
focusing in on the space between the letters – the unwritten story – the Divine
Order begins to become apparent. When we look at our lives through our regular
eyes all we can see is a series of coincidences. Only when we rise up and look
down can we see the connections between events and the Hand that assists. It is
for this reason that Purim must occur before Pesah for, if we have no
appreciation of this reality, then we might as well stay in Mitzraim – why
bother swapping one prison for another? God’s Order is revealed right up front,
right now.
Why lean on the left side? Why not the right side? In
the kabbalistic understanding of the Tree of Life (see “Counting the Omer” for
a more detailed explanation), the left side is associated with constriction
while the right side is associated with expansion; the left side with judgment
while the right side with grace; the left side with tension while the right
side with ease. Mitzraim means “The Place of Constriction.” God leaned on the
Mitzrim and had to put the squeeze on them to release the Children of Israel.
On the other hand, the Children of Israel were eased out of Mitzraim by the
gentle, loving hand of God. To what can this be compared? To a woman giving
birth[1]
with a midwife in attendance (the Hebrew term for labor
contractions is tzirim, which is connected to the word Mitzraim).
The First Cup represents the letter י (yud) of the Divine name. This is the cup of Holiness that opens the channel for the energy to come down from the High Place of Atzilut – the World of Emanation, the World before Conception, our Being before we have even started the journey of this Telling. As the night progresses, we draw the Divine Presence down and as we do so, we ourselves ascend. This is the Ladder of Jacob. This is the triangle with its apex facing downwards, descending from the Heavens, while simultaneously the triangle with its base on the Earth is ascending. In the space in between the tips touch, kiss and proceed to interlock in an Eternal hug. This is the Magen David, the Star of David. This is Israel – the Ladder between Heaven and Earth.
This theme of whole–broken–healing–whole can also be identified in the sounds of the shofar blown on Rosh HaShannah. There are three notes: Tekiah – one long blast (matzah); Shvarim – three broken notes (maror); and Teruah – nine staccato notes (haroset). Why these notes and why in this order – one:three:nine:one? The Tekiah is the ONE that we all emerged from, that we all knew before our lives lost their innocence and we became broken, removed (Galut – Exile) from the Source. This state of Galut is heard in the Shvarim. The Teruah is our recognizing this loss, entering the pain and crying out (Teshuvah – Return). We then return to the ONE but as conscious, mature HUmans (“Man” with heh and vav – God’s name) – this is Geulah (Redemption). The length of the Tekiah must be as long as the Shvarim-Teruah. Three notes of the Teruah must equal one of the Shvarim. This sandwich must be constructed so that the salami and pickle do not stick out over the sides. In other words, the spiritual reality is that everything is contained within the ONE all the time even though it may not feel like it. And it is this sandwich as Hillel’s Sandwich (Korekh) that we will be eating, not hearing, later this evening.
Who is hungry? It is we who are hungry, hungry for spiritual sustenance. The Prophet Amos said, “Days are coming when the people will hunger not for bread but to hear the word of the Lord.”[2] We are all so hungry. Mitzraim oppresses us. It separates us from ourSelves. The irony is, though, that this same hunger caused us to descend into Mitzraim in the first place.[3] We were hungry for love, for answers, for peace, for soul-connectivity. Where else could we have turned? But now comes the time to realize where the Truth lies. And it isn’t in Mitzraim!
All
spiritual paths demand the same thing: to break through the illusions created
by the ego-mind and thereby become healed, to come back home, to end the exile,
to awaken Messianic consciousness. The Shemah prayer ends with a
reminder of this by mentioning the redemption from Mitzraim. Ben Zoma’s comment
about “…all the days of your life” suggests that the redemption from Mitzraim
should not only be referred to in the light (day) during the good times, but
must also be prayed for in the dark (night) that we are in now. The Sages go
one step further and declare that the seemingly endless cycle of going down
into Mitzraim (dusk), suffering in bondage (night) and being redeemed (dawn)
does have an end – it is in the promise, by the grace of God, of the coming of
the Messiah. The Messiah is the potential for total healing on the personal,
national, global and cosmic levels. And, furthermore, the promise that this
process will start this very night…
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