post a link, but this note is not posted online, so here it is.
From: Rabbi Avrohom Lipszyc
A Personal Passover Note from Rabbi Avrohom Lipszyc
Making room for me in my life.
Reflections on Passover cleaning.
Now here is an interesting law. One may never kvetch over having to do a
mitzvah. However, one may kvetch of Passover cleaning. Why? Because the
cleaning isn't the mitzvah. Not having chometz in your possession on
Passover is the mitzvah. Therefore, one may not kvetch about not being able
to have chometz on Passover, but one may kvetch about Passover cleaning.
I find this law to be very meaningful and deep. You see, mitzvah is an
'emissary' of G-d. It is spiritual. It isn't us. We allow our G-dly soul to
impose itself upon us and have its way. However, when we do something for
G-d that is not a mitzvah, and how much more so if we innately want to
kvetch about it, then this is where we are really connecting with G-d from
who we are. It is truly us giving of ourselves to G-d. Therefore, let us
talk about Passover cleaning.
Ever have so much clutter in the front passenger leg-room space of you car
that you feel like you are the hitchhiker, and that it is the clutter that
owns this journey? Every feel like that there is no more room for you or
your purpose anywhere in your life anymore? What happened? How did everyone
and everything take over 98% of the space within you?
We live in such challenging times. Ignore your Blackberry for just one day,
and you are left with 64 text messages, 17 voice messages, and 238 emails
that made it pass your spam filter. Amazing how just seeing the Blackberry
on its recharger brings all that hidden baggage right up on your screen of
consciousness.
Then there are the piles in your office, on you desk, in your closet, and
the one that is playing "pass-the-ball-around," between you and your office
assistant. Not to mention that you can't ignore your wife's, "When are you
going to go through your shelves in the armoire," forever you know.
Take a deep breath, because I am going to now take you to yet another
cluttered place in your life, which probably is the source of not having
anymore room for you in your life: Relationships.
My Blackberry taught me a very practical system on how to handle clutter.
Every voice mail, text message, or email has but one of three choices;
Reply, Forward, or Delete. This worked for my Blackberry, office, and
armoire. However, relationships are a little different. Relationships, I
believe, are the primary source of cluttered-ness in our lives. Let us
explore this most important area of our internal Passover cleaning.
The issue with relationships is not about who the other people are, or where
they exist. The issue is always within ourselves, in where we have allowed
them to exist, dominate, clutter, and cause chaos in our lives. It is so
because of our unhealthy understanding of need. We create this need for a
certain mother, brother, father, spouse, or friend. For example, we then
realize that we don't have the mother we need. What do we do now? We don't
stop trying to change our mother, ourselves, or/and our relationships with
our mother. Thus, we get hurt again, again, and again. The need and pain of
this relationship clutters our life, and before you know it, there is very
little room for us and our journey in our lives.
Do I have your attention yet? I thought so. Nu, so how does one perform
Passover cleaning?
The story of Matzah is the story of faith. The story of chometz is the story
of need. One needs to get rid of the chometz and embrace the Matzah. It goes
like this: Dear G-d, I know that you gave me all I that I need. With that
you sit down and you write letters(*) to each of your cluttered
relationships. In this letter you understand them, and then you leave go of
needing them to be what they aren't.
How do you leave go of your need for them to be what they are not? Wash your
hands carefully, walk over to your Passover pantry, take a peek and a deep
breath of that amazing aroma of faith that emanates from that box of Shmurah
Matzah! G-d provides for us everything that we need, and, "there are many
messengers unto G-d." Your true needs will always be met, and the
false ones (aka dependencies) we should get rid of. Kind of like, Reply,
Forward, or Delete.
Yes, of course we can kvetch as we mourn over relationships and needs 'being
met' that we have created in our virtual reality. However, this is where we
really connect to G-d, as we open ourselves up to a true internal faith of
G-d in our most intimate self.
Vulnerable? Yes! Try whistling while you work at your Passover cleaning. It
helps.
My dear friends, I wish you all a most meaningful and beautiful Passover
cleaning, which will then usher in a most Kosher and happy Passover.
Your friend as ever,
Avrohom
Footnote:
(*)Never to be delivered! -Remember, for you it isn't about them. It is
about where you have allowed them to creep into, dominate, and clutter up
within yourself.
Chabad Lubavitch of North Miami
1948 NE 123rd Street
North Miami, Florida 33181
305-892-1234
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