|
|
PASSOVER HAS THREE NAMES ( Courtesy: Rabbi Yossi Marcus) 1. The Holiday of Matzot. This is the primary name used by the Torah to describe the holiday. 2. The Season of our Freedom. This is how the holiday is called in the special prayers and Kiddush for Passover. 3. Pesach. Pesach means to “skip” or “leap,” referring to the fact that the houses of the Jews were skipped over while the firstborn of Egypt were killed. This is how Jews refer to the holiday. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev pointed out that G-d refers to the holiday in a way that praises the Jewish people who followed Him into a desert trusting that He would provide for them. All they had were a couple of crackers made from dough that did not have time to rise: matzot. And yet they went. By contrast, the Jewish people refer to the holiday in a way that praises G-d for sparing them during the plague of the firstborn. The three names also represent a progression: 1. First thing is you have to become egoless like a Matzah—flat and unbloated. 2. This way you can be truly free in this Season of Freedom, since you’re no longer bogged down by your limitations. 3. At that point to you can make a radical Leap—Pesach—a quantum change that would normally be impossible. |