Teaching & Guided Meditation
The festival of Pesakh is a remembrance and celebration of the Exodus from Egypt. But in Kabbalah and Hasidic teaching, this is not only the Exodus that happened on the physical level 3,300+ years ago, but rather, it is a symbol for spiritual liberation, which is also the goal of many different esoteric traditions.
Nowadays, this idea is not unusual – it is common to see the Exodus as a symbol for some kind of spiritual or psychological freedom, as well as political freedom for people around the world. And part of the life of a Passover seder is the sharing of different views and opinions around the table on what it all means. And while that’s all wonderful, it leaves us with a question: What is spiritual freedom really? Is it just whatever you want it to be or think that it might be? And if we turn to different contemporary spiritual teachers about this question, it gets even more confusing. There’s a story that was told by the infamous guru Osho, that a student came to his master by a river and asked, “How do I achieve Liberation?” The master grabbed his head, pushed it down under the water, held him there for a few moments and then let him to come up for air. He said to the disciple, “When you want Liberation as much as you wanted to come up for air, that’s when you’ll achieve it.” Contrast that with the often-repeated instruction of the well-known enlightenment teacher Adyashanti, who often instructs his students to simply “let everything be as it is.” It’s hard to imagine two teachings being more opposite of each other. Which is it? Fight for your life? Or let everything be as it is? The answer is hidden within the haftarah reading for Shabbat Pesakh – an amazing passage from the Book of Ezekiel, which describes a scene that sounds like it’s directly out of zombie movie. Ezekiel says (in chapter 37) Hashem’s hand came upon me. I was taken out by the Divine Spirit (Ruakh Hashem) and set down in the valley. It was full of bones. I was led all around them; there were very many of them spread over the valley, and they were very dry. I was asked, “Son of Adam, can these bones live again?” I replied, “O my Sovereign Divine, only You know.” And I was told, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of Hashem! Thus says the Sovereign Divine to these bones: ‘I will cause breath (ruakh) to enter you and you shall live again. I will lay sinews upon you, and cover you with flesh, and form skin over you. And I will put breath (ruakh) into you, and you shall live again. And you shall know that I am Hashem!’” I prophesied as I had been instructed. And while I was prophesying, suddenly there was a sound of rattling, and the bones came together, bone to matching bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had grown, and skin had formed over them; but there was no breath (ruakh) in them. Then [Hashem] said to me, “Prophesy to the breath (ruakh), prophesy, O son of Adam! Say to the breath (ruakh): Thus said the Sovereign Divine: ‘Come, O breath (ruakh) from the four winds (rukhot), and breathe into these slain, that they may live again.’” I prophesied as I was commanded. The breath (ruakh) entered them, and they came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast multitude. And I was told, “O son of Adam, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.’ Prophesy, therefore, and say to them: Thus said the Sovereign Divine: ‘I am going to open your graves and lift you out of the graves, O My people, and bring you to the earth (Admat) of Israel. You shall know, O My people, that I am Hashem, when I have opened your graves and lifted you out of your graves. I will put My breath (rukhi) into you and you shall live again, and I will set you upon your own earth (admatkhem). Then you shall know that I, Hashem, have spoken and have acted’”—the Word of Hashem. There’s so much going on here, but I want to look at something in the underlying structure that’s easy to miss. When the bones are about to be resurrected, God says to Ezekiel, “I will put My Ruakh (breath) into them.” But then, God tells Ezekiel to call upon the four winds, and we get the sense that the Divine breath is the four winds. Why four winds? Because as we look through the whole narrative, there are actually four different kinds of Ruakh that are mentioned. Let’s look at each of them. The first is called a Ruakh Hashem – understood in context as the “Divine Spirit,” so ruakh here has the meaning not of breath or wind, but of inspiration, which in English can mean “motivation” or “insight,” but is also related to breathing. This Ruakh Hashem is the initial impulse that Ezekiel feels to be the Divine conduit for what is about to happen. The second type of ruakh is God’s own breath that will enter the bones to bring them back to life. The third type of ruakh describes actual wind, the four winds of the earth, and these are somehow equated with God’s breath Lastly, we have a very strange anomaly. Flesh and skin miraculously grow over the bones and everyone is resurrected. They all stand up, alive and able to speak. But what do they say? Do they thank God for bringing them back to life? Do they sing hymns and prayers for the miracle of coming back from the dead? No! Instead they complain: “Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.” How can this be? Of course, if they were really dead, they wouldn’t be saying anything. Now that they’re alive, they’re kvetching that they’re dead! But God give them a promise: “My breath will enter and you will live again.” Live again? But they are already alive; it seems to not make any sense. But this is the whole point: we are given physical life, but we’re so distracted that we don’t even notice it! We don’t even appreciate it! We are “enslaved by Egypt,” the Mitzrayim of our thoughts and feelings, of our lives in time. And so, the only way we can be truly alive spiritually is to want it more than anything. More than all our cares and worries, more than all our aspirations, our fears, our regrets, our goals, we need to want Liberation. Why? Because letting go of your distractions and preoccupations takes tremendous will and focus. Fortunately, we have a wonderful tool: I will put My breath into you and you shall live. In other words, bring your awareness into your breathing, feel the Divine gift of each breath, allowing everything to be just as it is, and you become spiritually alive, resurrected from the deadening inertia of unconsciousness, and reborn into Presence. And this is the paradox: we need tremendous will and commitment; we need to want it like we would want air with our heads held under water. But the practice itself is the exact opposite – it is a letting go, an allowing of things to be as they are, a resting of awareness moment to moment on the simple act of breathing. And in this simple synthesis of letting go and focus, of will and surrender in one, is the true Exodus – the “going out” from the burdens and dramas of life in time, “coming in” to Life in Presence, Barukh Hashem.
Read past teachings on Passover HERE
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