“The call of the Rebbe”
Chag sameach ״The call of the Rebbe” #1 Based on the Maamer(Kabbalah discourse)of Hachodesh Hazeh ה׳תשל״ה
An ancient feud, a temporary fix — at least until the Messiah comes and Elijah the prophet solves all the Mysteries of the universe.
Do we drink four cups or five?
We nod to Rashi by drinking four but honor the dissenting opinion of Rambam by just filling the fifth cup, but not drinking from it. Rashi, grounded in his Peshat world sees relevance only in the four Biblical expressions of G-d, the Exodus from Egypt that was — Rambam, looking at the world mystically, sees also the redemption that will be. One celebrates the “Ve — hitzalti” of the past, while one quivers in anticipation over the “Ve- hay vaysi” of the future.
The four cups symbolize what was, and what we are now — the fifth, Known as Elijahs Cup — is all about what can happen, and who we can still become.
The Rebbe was a once in a lifetime Jewish leader, never content to sit back passively, awaiting the celestial telegrams of the future. Being in his world meant living in the presence of a man whose door was always open to Elijah, a fiery world, dominated by endless possibilities of discovering the goodness of G-ds universe, instead of surrendering to all the seemingly insurmountable hurdles encountered along the way.
Though Living in the Rebbes world meant risking severe disappointment, it was a good trade off. To him the faith in living better, higher, holier, and happier — were the only pre requisites for being granted entry. Being there, meant living with a never ending adrenalin rush. It meant seeing the sadness of the world as a pathway into joy, as opposed to a brick wall blocking it out. It meant always reaching for the light, even in a darkened world — it meant staying with it, feeling it’s heaviness — riding it, surfing it toward the shore, as opposed to simply drowning in it.
Most of all it meant learning to pour our morning coffee from the four cups, but drinking it from the fifth.
It still means finding a third way, a way that sees Rashi and Rambam as two sides of the same coin.
The Rebbes way.
The verse from Micah 7 captures this idea perfectly and sums up the whole point of Passover. “ Kee may tzayscha may eretz mitsrayim are nu Niflaos — just like the exodus then — I will once again show you wonders.”
Its more then just poetry. The Rebbe defines this verse in existential terms. He says if you feel trapped in your life, then the only way forward is by way of your past.
The fifth cup is an answer to the fifth question.
What are we running from in our lives?
On Passover we need to stop running away from our traumas. Tracing our steps back into Egypt means learning to love ourselves again. Learning to stop defining ourselves perpetually by whatever might have victimized us, is the process whereby we reclaim sole ownership over our energy, freeing ourselves from the tyranny of living under the auspices of others, victims of an emotional totalitarianism.
By learning to redefine our selves on our own terms we connect with an amazing power, not found anywhere else except at the scene of our most catasttrophic psychological disasters. Thats the irony of it all. The manifestion of the highest dimension of G-d awareness lurks furtively in the precints of our lowest spaces.
The reward we get for circling back to re visit our own ruins of Egypt, is nothing short of the discovery of our highest self, the level of “bekevodo uve atsmo.” In psycological terms this means finding respect for self by connecting with an inherent level of soulfulness, the deepest most sublime dimension of self that remains continuously intact, even when all else feels broken.
On Passover we feel safe enough to allow Elijah into our homes, the sacred spaces that house our history, both past and present.
This reminds us that redemption doesn’t begin elsewhere. It begins in our life, in our hearts, and in our homes. By opening that door we gain the strength to open other doors, ones we never thought we would have the courage to open.
On this night we dip twice, once into our past, clearing the way for the ultimate renewal ( Chag Ha Aviv) that empowers us to dip faithfully into the present and the future as well.
The Passover Ushpizin of Rashi and Rambam are present — smiling with us knowingly, cheering us on, as we fling open all the gates that might have been mentally closed to us.
Tonight we raised the fifth cup and chant the songs of our own personal redemption — “Behold I was in this place, my place, this cup of my life filled to the brim with all of its ups and downs, with all that is right and all that is not yet quite right, with its successes and its failures, with its disappointments and its rewards, I raise this glass in a celebratory toast to this life, the only one that I have, the one that is my gateway to heaven all along, and I never even knew!
Much love
Rabbi Yossi