Passing Over Time by Shmuel Reichman

Feel, GrowThink,

Passover Passing Over Time

By Shmuel Reichman

You can learn a lot about a person based on how they use their time. When we get home from school or work, how do we view our free time? Do we ask ourselves how we can waste the night away, how to most easily and enjoyably make it to tomorrow morning? Or do we take full advantage of every moment, aiming to gain as much as possible from each and every day? When the alarm goes off in the morning, do we jump out of bed like a lion, ready to conquer the day, or do we hit snooze again, again, and again? As human beings, we find ourselves stuck within time. How do we use our time?

While events and decisions occur within time, there is an aspect of reality that transcends time. The Vilna Gaon explains, fascinatingly, that while events occur within time, ideas transcend this construct. Ideas don’t “happen”; they simply are. They exist beyond the process of time. When thinking about and relating to ideas, we step outside the present moment and connect to something outside the movement of the clock, beyond the passing of time.

With this in mind, let us explore a fascinating idea related to time and its essential connection to Pesach.

Timely Exodus

Time is a predominant theme of Pesach but expresses itself in a unique and somewhat puzzling manner.

On Pesach, we are commanded to eat matzah (unleavened bread) and are absolutely forbidden to eat chametz (leavened bread). This is an incredibly strict prohibition, as the punishment for eating chametz is kares (spiritual excision). This seems extreme, as the difference between matzah and chametz can come down to a matter of seconds. This means that a single second can determine a person’s spiritual reality, dictating whether one performed a mitzvah or violated the most severe of prohibitions. Why is time so central to Pesach, and how can a second of time have such significant implications?

Let us trace this theme of time through the story of yetzias Mitzrayim, the exodus from Egypt. The Torah commands us to eat matzah on Pesach because the Jewish people left Mitzrayim bi’chipazon, in great haste (Devarim 16:3). The Jewish people were forced to eat matzah because they did not have enough time to make bread. Although this is the most well-known reference to time in the Pesach story, there is another.

The Arizal (famous 16th century kabbalist) makes an intriguing statement about time and its significance in the Pesach story. He states that had the Jewish People remained in Egypt for even one more second at the point of the Exodus, they would have reached the fiftieth level of tumah, a point of no return. Chazal explain that the Jewish people in Mitzrayim were on the forty-ninth level of tumah, the very lowest level of spiritual impurity. Had we sunk even one level lower, we would have been lost completely, beyond the point of rescue. The Arizal emphasizes that it was necessary for us to leave with such speed in order to save us from falling to this lowest level. The speed with which we left Egypt was of fundamental importance.

The Arizal says that had the Exodus been delayed for even one more second, we would have been completely lost within the depths of impurity. However, the moment of the exodus seems to be the farthest thing from a spiritually dangerous moment. In fact, it appears to be the moment at which Klal Yisrael was at an ultimate spiritual high, far from spiritual harm.

The Jewish People had just witnessed Hashem unleash His wrath on the Egyptians through the performance of the Ten Plagues, a systematic process of openly revealing Hashem to the world. On the night of the Exodus, Hashem performed makkas bechoros (the Plague of the Firstborn), devastating Egypt and causing even Pharaoh to react in alarm. Makkas bechoros was unique in that Hashem Himself performed this makkah (see Rashi). The Ramban explains that all the principles of hashgacha pratis (Divine providence) were displayed through these events. We were clearly then on an immensely high spiritual level.

On this same night, the Jewish People brought the Korban Pesach and painted their doorposts with blood, instilling within their hearts the knowledge that Hashem watches over and protects us. This night contained some of the loftiest moments imaginable – one would expect the Jewish People to be on an equally lofty level. This was the very birth and creation of Klal Yisrael, the root of their journey to Har Sinai to accept the Torah. How, then, could one more moment in this intensely holy atmosphere possibly have caused the destruction of the Jewish People?

If the Arizal’s statement was not already difficult enough, he takes it one step further. The Arizal says that not only would going out one second later have placed us beyond hope, but even if we had gone out just the slightest bit slower it would have been too late. Not only did we have to leave right away, but the pace itself had to be quick. Not only when we left, but how we left was important. What is the meaning of all this?

Perspectives on the Physical

These questions come down to the concept of time. In order to understand time, we must take a step back and look at the nature of physicality in general. Time is a dimension of physicality and, in some ways, is even emblematic of the physical. Therefore, our approach to physicality will illuminate our understanding of time.

Most spiritual schools of thought view the physical world as lowly and dangerous; it should therefore be avoided to whatever extent possible. In order to live a spiritual life, one must simply escape the physical. Spiritual systems such as Buddhism prescribe meditation, abstinence, and transcendence of any hint of physical desire. In such a system, the ideal is to sit isolated on a mountaintop and meditate on your navel.

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Historically, this was the spiritual system of Shem and Ever. They understood the dangers of the physical world – they witnessed the evil and destruction of both the Dor Ha’Mabul and Dor Haflagah and decided that in order to maintain their spirituality, they must remove themselves from this physical and lowly world.

Avraham, however, introduced a novel, idealistic approach to life. He understood that while the physical can be dangerous if misused, the ideal is not to transcend the physical but to use the physical to reflect something higher. In other words, he understood the ideal Jewish spiritual system.

How many mitzvos are commandments of the mind? Almost none! You can count them on your hands: believe in Hashem, love Hashem, be in awe of Hashem, don’t be jealous, and just a few others. The overwhelming majority of mitzvos are physical actions which connect you to the spiritual source, Hashem. The act is physical, with spirituality and mindfulness infused within that physical act. We eat matzah, shake a lulav, blow shofar, and wear tefillin – all actions, all physical. We don’t believe in transcending the physical; we believe in using the physical to connect to the transcendent.

While the ideal is for the physical to be utilized and elevated, there is an important qualification. When the physical is channeled properly, it is the highest of spiritual accomplishments, but when misused, it has infinitely negative reverberations. We must therefore maintain control and focus while using the physical. Our root must be transcendent, fully connected to the spiritual, and only then, while maintaining that foundation, can we come down and use the physical. This is why the first stage in the process must be transcendence, only afterwards coming down to use the physical. First, we have Yom Kippur, where we transcend as malachim, and only then do we have Sukkos, in which we come back down and embrace the physical aspect of life. We start with the first night of Pesach, a night of transcendence, and then we descend into the physical world, where we build (count) our way to Matan Torah. Without rooting ourselves in the transcendent, we risk getting stuck within the physical. Harnessing Time

Applying these concepts to time, we can understand the importance of using time, controlling it, rather than allowing it to enslave us. We have two options: we can either let time pass us over and be pushed through life by time or we can pass over time and transcend its limitations. The key is to use time, not to be used by time. We need to learn how to ride the waves of time, harnessing the dormant potential within each moment. When we are passive in life, everything moves slowly – time becomes quicksand. A life without goals, without a schedule, where moments of life don’t mean anything is a life stuck within the trappings of time. Such a person can kill time, can waste an evening just to get to tomorrow. One who values time, our mitzvos, to become stuck within the trappings of time.

The Formation of a Nation

We can now begin to answer our original questions. Pesach night was the inception of Klal Yisrael as a nation. As the Maharal explains, the Korban Pesach represents the idea of becoming one as a nation. We used a one year old calf; it had to be eaten in one house; as a single chabura (group); it was roasted, as opposed to cooked, because roasting melts the meat together into one piece as opposed to cooking which makes the meat fall apart; it was roasted whole – not as cut up pieces; and its bones could not be broken. All of these details of oneness reflected the oneness that was being created on that night.

Klal Yisrael was becoming a single

Had we moved one second slower, or a moment too late, our very root would have been stuck within the trappings of time.

who rides time, views time like money. Time is currency and you choose how to spend it. Every day we get 86,400 seconds and how you use your allotted time determines what kind of life you live.

This is the theme of matzah. Chazal (in the Mechiltah) state, “Mitzvah habah l’yadchah, al tachmitzenah, when a mitzvah comes to your hand, don’t let it spoil,” or more accurately, don’t allow it to become chametz.

Chametz is the result of adding time to the baking process of bread. As the Maharal explains, this statement of Chazal is telling us not to allow any extra time to get added to our mitzvos either, otherwise, the mitzvah becomes stuck in time. Fascinatingly, the word mitzvah has the same shoresh (root) as matzah, and the word tachmitzenah has the same shoresh as chametz. Just as on Pesach we must not allow our food, our matzah, to get stuck within the trappings of time, so too, we cannot allow our spiritual commandments, nation, one with Hashem.

Every process contains multiple stages. The first is the spark of creation, which is followed by a slow process of expressing that seed, and then finally, the finished product. Take, for example, the growth of a tree. First, there is the seed, which goes through a slow growth process as that seed is expressed, and finally there is the tree itself. A human being goes through this same process as well. Every person begins as a zygote, a single cell, which grows and develops into the end result – a fully formed human being.

In every process of creation, the root, the seed, is the most potent and important phase. This formative stage is the most delicate. Any error or imperfection present at this stage will have cataclysmic results. For example, if a boy cuts his finger at the age of seven, it’s not that bad. However, if there is even a minor glitch in the DNA of a zygote, even a single chromosome missing, everything can go wrong. The results can be catastrophic.

Therefore, when forming the root and seed of Klal Yisrael, it was imperative for us to be perfect, transcending all the limitations of time and space. We needed to move b’zerizus. Our food needed to transcend the limitations of time and space, and so did our very movement itself. This is the secret of matzah and this is the secret to understanding the Arizal’s cryptic statement.

Had we moved one second slower, or a moment too late, our very root would have been stuck within the trappings of time. Our “zygote” had to be constructed within the dimension of zerizus, beyond the constrictions of time and space. We were creating our DNA; everything had to be perfect. Once we were rooted beyond time and space, we could receive Hashem’s Torah, something also rooted beyond time and space. Only once we are rooted beyond time and space can we then come back down and use time and space to reflect something higher.

It’s therefore no coincidence that Klal Yisrael performed the mitzvah of bris milah before leaving Mitzrayim. This is the mitzvah of the eighth, the ultimate paradigm of connecting the physical to the spiritual. As the Maharal explains, Torah is also the “eighth,” which is why we received it on the fiftieth day after leaving Mitzrayim, the eighth week.

This brings us full circle to the beginning of this article. Torah and ideas exist beyond the dimension of time.

May we be inspired to fully harness the potential of our time, to use time and not be used by time, and to enter Pesach and the mitzvah of matzah with the mindset of connecting to ourselves, to all of Klal Yisrael, and to Hashem Himself.

Shmuel Reichman is an inspirational speaker, writer, and coach who has lectured internationally at shuls, conferences, and Jewish communities on topics of Jewish thought and Jewish medical ethics. He is the founder and CEO of Self-Mastery Academy (ShmuelReichman.com), the transformative online course that is revolutionizing how we engage in self-development. You can find more inspirational lectures, videos, and articles from Shmuel on his website, ShmuelReichman.com.