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PESACH MESSAGE
Rabbi Benji Landau
What’s really important
Matzah – love it or hate it, for eight
days of the year (or seven if you’re
lucky enough to get away to Israel for
the holiday), we have to eat it.
For some of us, matzah invokes happy
memories of Pesach holidays gone by, but
for some of us it only invokes some
serious stomach cramps! So what’s it all
about Why are we commanded to eat
matzah for these holidays Why do we
need to eat something that is not nearly
as filling as bread, and tastes far worse
As with all similar Jewish questions there
are various levels on which to answer this
one. We understand that though there
may be simple answers to the question,
we’re searching here for something
fundamental, an idea with which we can
enhance our lives.
So let’s start at the beginning. We all
know why we’re commanded to eat
matzah – we say it in the hagaddah:
This matzah that we eat, for what reason
Because the dough of our forefathers did not
have enough time to become chametz until the
King of Kings, the Holy One Blessed Be He,
appeared unto them and redeemed them.
In other words, we eat matzah to
commemorate the phenomenon that
took place on the night our forefathers
left Egypt, namely, that they did not have
time to wait until the dough could rise
before baking it into bread. Rather, they
had to bake it when it had not yet risen
thus resulting in matzah, as opposed to
normal bread.
Perhaps though, we need to look a bit
deeper to find an answer that resonates
within each of us.
We live in a world that has found a way
to manufacture a device, gizmo or utensil
for every conceivable situation in which
a human being may find himself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of
everything modern technology has
contributed to society. Information and
resources sharing, ease of living and
ability to communicate are fantastic
achievements.
But this has come at a price. iPhone,
iPad, iPod, Tablets, Ultrabooks, online,
mobile, BBM, Facebook, Twitter. Our
world has been taken over by
technology; by our inability to let go of
our phones, where with twitching
thumbs we tap away in the hope of
enhancing our relationships, whilst
actually neglecting to relate to the people
standing next to us.
It’s reaching new levels every day. At the
recent Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas, Sony were delighted to be the
pioneers of new mobile phone
technology that actually allows a person
to use their phone in the shower. Their
new Xperia mobile phone is waterproof
for up to half an hour.
Is that really where we’ve come to
I understand that our oneness with our
mobiles has led to our mobiles coming
with us into the small room, but is our
addiction to technology so strong that
we cannot even wash ourselves without
being able to ‘Tweet’ about it in real
time
In all seriousness though, this is a
problem that is having terrible
consequences. An increasing number of
hitherto fully observant modern
orthodox teens in America have fallen
into a group known as the ‘half Shabbos
group’.
These are teenagers who are so uneasy
without their mobile phones that they
text on Shabbat with no compunction.
We’re talking here, about kids who come
from frum homes, from families who are
shomer Shabbat, but have been robbed of
their sensitivity towards what was
previously a special day.
How has society allowed itself to lose
sight of priorities in this way How has it
become culturally acceptable for a group
of youngsters to sit round a table in a
restaurant or coffee shop and all have
their mobiles out, instead of
concentrating on enjoying the company
of those in whose presence they find
themselves.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if together as a
community, as a united society, we were
able to collectively reorganise our priorities;
to take a step back from the constant
barrage of offers and deals, from the
on-going release of yet newer, faster,
smaller technological advancements, and
to make a firm decision as to what is really
important to us in life.
And that’s what matzah is all about. After
all, what is matzah; it’s almost exactly the
same as bread, just that it’s manufactured
with fewer fancy ingredients; without
taking as much time. In a way matzah is a
more efficient and stream-lined version
of bread. It allows us to eat and to
become nourished and satiated, whilst not
getting drawn into superficial factors
regarding how good it smells or how
delicious it looks.
And that really is the lesson of Pesach.
Once a year we are given the opportunity
to decide for ourselves what’s really
important; to identify the goals we should
be striving for, and the pursuits that are
worth chasing and then to ascertain
whether or not our actual priorities in life
are commensurate with those aims.
It could well be that after engaging in this
analysis we might find that we have
unnecessarily imposed ‘task-masters’ over
ourselves, that we have made ourselves
into ‘slaves’ to all sorts of different
factors; technology, work, sport, shopping
and others, whilst neglecting to focus real
time and energy on what really matters,
such as family, friendships, relationships
and overall development as human being.
This Pesach, whether we are matzah’s
biggest fans or we can’t stand the stuff,
let’s all bite into it with relish and taste the
taste of freedom.
On behalf of Aviva, Chananya,
Yehuda and Millie, I wish the entire
kehilla a happy and kosher pesach,
and that next year we will all be free in
Jerusalem!
Rabbi Benji Landau
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