Rabbi Roodyn

We are well into the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim and the beauty of these weeks is that they give us the opportunity to discuss the themes and ideas of Pesach without the Pre Pesach pressure of getting our homes and our hearts ready. These sedras are essentially a dry run to give us a chance to prepare ideas for us to ‘put in the freezer’ and taken them out just before Pesach to use them at our Sedarim.

So we have just experienced nine of the ten plagues, we have seen Hashem’s Hand, His intervention in the laws of nature and His ability to control everything that happens in this world. The Bnei Yisrael have been passive spectators until now, watching their captors being brought to their knees, realising that Hashem so to speak is ‘good for the money’ and that it will only be a matter of time before they go free.

But this all changes before the tenth and final plague, makkas bechoros, where the deified firstborns will be wiped out. It is in fact this episode that will give Pesach or Passover its name, as Hashem jumps or passes over our houses. Now the Bnei Yisrael are called upon to play their part ויקחו לכם איש שה לבית אבות שה לבית, each family has to take a sheep. They will tie to the bedpost, water it and inspect it daily before the time arrives until the fourteenth day of the month. The entire congregation of the Children of Israel shall slaughter it in the afternoon. It then gets roasted whole to be totally consumed at the first ever seder night that evening, taking care not to break any of the animal’s bones in the process.

Many of us will have a hard time connecting to this aspect of Pesach, seeing as for the last 1950 years it is not something that has been part of our Pesach experience and at best is represented by the shank bone on our seder plates. At the same time we know that this is one of Rabban Gamliel’s three things that we have to mention and discuss on seder night. Why was this a critical element of the Exodus story and what are we meant to take from a korban pesach that we no longer perform?

The key to this is back at the end of Bereshis where the original Bnei Yisrael, the sons of Yaakov are settled in Goshen, away from the Egyptians as they were shepherds. This was an abomination to Egyptians because the ram was the sacred animal of two Egyptian gods, Amun and Khnum. It is precisely because of this that the korban pesach plays such a central role in our liberation. Put simply, had we just marched out of Egypt one fine day, we would have been enslaved in the place where it matters most, in our minds.

Yetzias Mitzrayim is as much about leaving Egypt as it is about leaving the slave mentality behind. The Degel Machane Efrayim explains that Mitzrayim is related to Meitzarim, a narrow, confined space. The Bnei Yisrael were perceived as being worthless for over two hundred years and that takes its toll. They could see all the miracles in the world, but nothing can compare to them having the strength and courage to look their slave masters in the eyes as they tied up their holy sheep, preparing it for slaughter.

Mitzrayim isn’t just a physical location, it’s a state of mind. It’s a mind-set that says, I am worthless, my life isn’t valuable, I have nothing to contribute. I add no value. It doesn’t matter why a person thinks this way, it is their own personal mitzrayim. Maybe that what Mitzrayim is worded in the plural because it’s never just one thought, its always a train of thoughts, with one thing leading to another in a downward spiral.

There can be no better Shabbos to raise awareness in the community about a very important topic. But I would like to start by offering our congratulations and yeshar koach to Gideon Kay on recently being appointed as a trustee for JAMI. Communal life is all about taking responsibility both with our own shul community and further afield.

Mental health is an area which has traditionally been taboo in the Jewish community, we are all too happy to krechtz about our aches and pains, and Jews have a very healthy, positive and responsible attitude towards medicine on the whole. But for some reason, mental health has more of a stigma, we don’t like to talk about anxiety, depression, OCD, food related issues. Bipolar. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Mental health affects all of us, just like physical health does. It affects what we think, what we feel and how we behave, it helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices. Mental illness can come from a number of factors, some biological, some developmental – but it can be managed through prevention, diagnosis, treatment and mental health recovery.

I’m a Rabbi, not a mental health professional and I believe that there is a chov kadosh, a holy obligation to raise awareness so that people should know that they never need to suffer alone. We are privileged to live in a community where confidential health and assistance is available through JAMI and other health care providers.

Yetzias Mitzrayim means just that, taking Mitzrayim out of us, on every level. Physically, spiritually and emotionally and I think this is what we celebrate on pesach.

הוֹצִיאָנוּ מֵעַבְדוּת לְחֵרוּת, מִיָּגוֹן לְשִֹמְחָה, וּמֵאֵבֶל לְיוֹם טוֹב, וּמֵאֲפֵלָה לְאוֹר גָּדוֹל, וּמִשִּׁעְבּוּד לִגְאֻלָּה, וְנֹאמַר לְפָנָיו שִׁירָה חֲדָשָׁה הַלְלוּיָ-הּ:

He brought us forth from slavery into freedom, from sorrow into joy, from mourning into festivity, from darkness into great light, from subjugation into redemption.

These are not synonyms, they are different aspects of geula, and when they all come together we can sing a shira chadasha, a new song, a song of renewal.