The miracle of the 7th

THE BIG IDEA

This Friday night we come to the crowning moment in the Passover experience, the miraculous passage through the proverbial birth canal represented by the splitting of the Sea and the two walls of water that birthed the Isrealites and killed their oppressors. Whatever wonders came before it is the seventh night of Passover that solidifies the existence of the jewish nation –  the moment they knew they were different, saved, and chosen. The moment they knew they were free. 

The Song of the Sea marks an entirely new world order where the Oneness officially revealed divine will in this world's existence.

The literature of the spiritual masters discuss the magnitude of this move. Other than having enlightened great great grandparents, the spiritual state of the Isrealite clan before they were rescued from Egypt was just as morally depraved, and idolatrous as their Egyptian oppressors. And in a just world, with a just God, the saving of one morally ignorant people and destruction of another was a tricky spiritual gesture. 

And so, on this seventh day, in this final miracle, it is essential for every practitioner of Torah and Mitzvot, for every Israelite, to feel the awe in the sheer grace of the Oneness. For it is only by grace that the Israelites were saved. Not by their merits or kindness or prayers. Not by good deeds or anything else. Just grace. A gift that you and your ancestors have spent, and will spend generations paying off by keeping the spiritual structure of divine will in the world (torah and mitzvot). 

Luckily this year’s final day comes on Shabbat – and so we all get a chance to experience the double wonder — to celebrate the existence of our tribal ways and the way our tribal ways are the ultimate celebration of existence.

Happy Passover and Shabbat Shalom… next year in Jerusalem!!!!