Exodus1verse8's Blog

March 28, 2010 / 13 Nisan 5770

One-Shelf-A-Day-Until-Passover-Preparation-Log
A.K.A. The Dayenu Log

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Sunday, March 28, 2010
13 Nisan 5770  Search for Chametz
I’m grateful for my husband’s delight in making pizza as I clean away the flour and yeast from the countertop and rolling-pin.

Stress Relief Tip:
The search for chametz is almost over.  Maybe you searched your house for ten carefully wrapped pieces of chametz with a candle or a flashlight, and then swept them up with a feather or a lulav from Sukkot.  Tomorrow you can burn them.  I have done all that other years, but not this time.  For now my focus is on the pieces inside me.  Some of them are as hard to pull out as a turnip growing in the ground.
From p. 101, “Sacred Therapy: Jewish Spiritual Teachings on Emotional Healing and Inner Wholeness,” c. 2003 by Estelle Frankel, Shambhala Publications, Boston & London 2005. -
“It was not enough to take the Jews out of Egypt.  It was necessary to take Egypt out of the Jews.
- Hasidic saying
The real exile of Israel in Egypt was that they learned to endure it.
- Rabbi Hanoch of Alexander “

Spring Lookout News:
At midday Carol Grosman and I caught up for a moment over tea.  Her storytelling and peace-building work inspire me continually.  Many of you will recognize the moving photographs of her collaborator Lloyd Wolf at the Jerusalem Stories Project site.:

http://www.jerusalemstories.org/

Later I walked to the coop to buy oranges, dates, raisins, and grape juice to make charoset.  A large broken branch hung by a splinter from a tree trunk, yet it was still blooming.  The mirrored mosaic mural on the Takoma Park Maryland Library danced with light reflections.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
From pp. 117-118, “Keeping Passover: Everything You Need to Know to Bring the Ancient Tradition to Life and to Create Your Own Passover Celebration,” c. 1995 by Ira Steingroot, HarperSanFrancisco, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY.  -
“Burn the chametz.  By nine or ten o’clock on the morning before the seder, erev Pesach (the day preceeding Passover), we should have eaten the last chametzdikhe food we had set aside.  After that, we burn all the chametz turned up in our search the night before and say the following…statement:
All leaven in my possession which I have seen or not seen, which I have removed or not removed, is hereby nullified and ownerless as the dust of the earth.
Martin Buber relates that when the Chasidic tzaddik Rabbi Baruch of Medzibezh burned his chametz, he spiritualized this Aramaic legal formula by explaining:
“All leaven in my possession” — all that seethes — “which I have seen or not seen” –even though I believe I have looked into myself thoroughly, I have probably not looked thoroughly at all — “which  I have removed or not removed” — the Evil Urge within me tries to convince me that I have removed everything, but not until now do I see that I have not removed it, and so I beg of You, God, “it is hereby nullified and ownerless as the dust of the earth.”

Go and Study:
Also quoted from Estelle Frankel’s book “Sacred Therapy,” copyright as referenced above, this excerpt is from p. 99-100 -
“Finding the right balance of self-empowerment and self-surrender can be quite challenging.  When we look to Jewish sources on the subject, there seems to be an imbalance.  While there are many teachings on humility and self-surrender in the mystical texts, there are very few teachings on self-assertion and self-empowerment.  This imbalance is most likely the result of the long history of oppression that Jews faced in exile, during which they rarely had control over their external circumstances.  By surrendering to God’s will, Jews obtained at least some measure of internal control.
This isn’t to say Hasidic masters never cautioned against excess humility.  For example, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev taught his disciples, “You must be humble in all your ways and in all your deeds.  You might therefore think that you must also be humble in serving God.  Heaven forbid that you say that.  You must say, “When I fulfill God’s commandments, my observance is very important to God.  He has great delight from my observance.’”
…As is often the case in Jewish spiritual healing, we are charged with the task of integrating seemingly contradictory qualities.  Humility is essential for spiritual development, but we must be able to hold on to its sacred counterpart as well, for with holy chutzpah our humility is fully potentiated, creating a powerful spiritual  synergy for divine service.”

B’shalom,
Amy Brookman
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