SKG Articles: Adar - Hidden Mysteries

Chodesh Tov! I am writing you from the beautiful desert of Arizonia. What a treat for me to be out of
the city and in the desert that so reminds me of our exodus from Egypt. Nissan historically was the
month when the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt, and according to our sages it will be the
month in the future when the final redemption will take place. The Torah calls Nissan," this month
shall be for you the head of the months, it is the first for you of the months of the year." ( Exod 12:2)
According to the prophet Jeremiah, whatever is called "first" for you means that it is for your benefit.
This month of Nissan offers tremendous gifts on all levels of being, so open yourself to the
possibility and the hope that something new and wonderful will happen.

The holiday of Passover which occurs within this month epitomizes the energy and spiritual
opportunity of Nissan. At the Passover Seder, we are reminded that the exodus of the Jewish people
from the slavery of Egypt is not just a one-time historical event. The Haggagah says," In every
generation one should regard himself as though he personally had gone out of Egypt." The Hebrew
word for Egypt is mitzraim, which means " narrow straits" and kabbalistically it represents all
psychological, physical, and spiritual boundaries and constraints.

Rabbi Yitzchok Luria likened the descent of Jacob into Egypt to the soul entering the body. Because
our soul is a part of the Holy One, is so expanded, so awesome, and comes from such a heavenly
place, beyond the time space continuum, when it enters into the physical world of time and space, it
experiences contraction, confusion, and alienation. This is the miztraim that we human beings
continue to live in. God could have created a different world where our souls would automatically
feel at home in the body and in the physical world but in divine wisdom God chose otherwise.

According to the Ramchal, Moses Luzzato, wonderful kabbalist of the 17th century, God created a
yetzer hara (an evil inclination) and a yetzer tov (a good inclination) and balanced these inclinations
so that we would initially not be compelled toward either of them. When God finished creating
everything in creation, the Torah tells us that" God saw that it was good." After God created man,
the Torah says, "God saw all that He had made and behold it was very good." The Ramchal, Rabbi
Moses Luzatto says in his masterpiece Derech Hashem, the Way of God, that one of the
explanations for God proclaiming the creation of man as" very good" was that man was given free
will. Of all the creatures God created in this world, the human being has the power of choice.
Through our free will, we create our destiny and our karma. God did not want the human being to be
a robot, to be a mindless puppet. By implanting the divine soul in the human being and empowering
this being with free will, God wanted the human being to experience Godliness directly, to be like
God and experience a taste of the joy of creation. God also wanted to love and to be known and this
kind of intimacy can only take place if the human being has free will. Without free will, there is no
possibility of love or true knowing.

Our life is a battleground between these two inclinations and this makes life challenging for all of us
personally as well as collectively. How do we recognize that we are under the spell of the yetzer
hara? If we find that we are impatient, ungrateful, restless, or judgmental, this is a good indication of
the yetzer hara at play. If we judge ourselves and others harshly, if we experience ourselves as a
victim, if we are attached to what happened in the past, and we keep re-creating the same life
experiences where we continue to feel hurt or unworthy, we must recognize that we are under the
clutches of the yetzer hara.

In our present language, we understand this struggle with the yetzer hara as a battle between the
soul (the authentic self) and the ego (the false self). The ego part of us seeks to define itself in the
world of form and the soul wants to nullify itself before the divine throne. The ego- mind within us
desires certain sensations, experiences, and physical objects to define and validate its identity and
even its existence. The ego- mind promises us happiness, security, peace but it does not and can
never deliver it. By catering to the needs and desires of the ego mind, our desires and attachments
only increase and the emptiness inside us is unsatisfied. The yetzer hara is at the root of all
addictions. So much in our secular and even in our religious culture supports the agenda of the ego
mind.

In the light of true spiritual awareness, we see that the ego mind or the yetzer hara is not the truth,
and has no intrinsic power of its own. It is illusion and it has only the power that we give it. It is
important that we not fight the yetzer hara, for that only gives it power. When we know from deep
inside that ego mind can not offer the solution or healing from itself, only then, are we ready to leave
mitzraim.

Just as the Jews called out to God when the slavery they experienced in Egypt became too intense,
so we cry out when the personal existential pain we experience in our lives becomes hard to bear.
To relinquish the hold of the ego mind, we must attach ourselves to that which is true, to that which
is free, to that which is truly loving, and that Being is God. We strengthen our awareness of our
connection to the Source of life through meditation, prayer and doing good deeds. We need to
continually ask ourselves "What does God want? What does my soul want?" When we do this kind
of meditation, we become more aware of soft, loving, and healing voice within us of the higher
knowing of the soul and how it differs from the chatter, and ranting of the needs and desires of the
ego mind, but for many of us this awareness will not be enough. The grip of the yetzer hara is so
deep. We were so vulnerable as children and many of us will need to do additional inner work to
free ourselves from the ego defenses we developed to protect ourselves during childhood.

What does the holiday of Passover offer us to help free us from our personal Mitzraim? First in
preparing for Pesach, we clean our house of chometz. Chometz refers to grains such as wheat, rye,
spelt, barley and oats that are mixed with water and allowed to ferment. Spiritually, chometz is
associated with pride, negativity, and whatever does not allow one to be in the moment, all parts of
the ego mind that keep one limited and bound. Cleaning out the house of chometza is a spiritual
purification process. As we remove and release our personal negativity symbolized by chometz, we
open to positive energy, creating greater possibility for newness in our lives. Secondly, we eat
matzah. Matzah, is simple, it is humble and in the moment. As we eat matzah, we need to become
like matzah, simple, humble, in the moment. By being in the moment, simple, fully open to who we
are, accepting and being with all the feelings that are present for us, we then can open to God's
grace and God will take us out of mitzraim. May we each be blessed to take some significant steps
out of personal mitzraim into the greater freedom and joy that God wants to give us.

Author: Mindy Ribner
Source: Beit Miriam

Books by Melinda Ribner can be found in our online store.
Kabbalah Month by Month also offers additional teachings, stories, and meditations about the energy of this month.
New Age Judaism offers teachings about the intersection of New Age and Kabbalah, and most relevantly about the
paradigm shift that occurred after the Temple was destroyed and now once again we are undergoing another
paradigm shift after the Holocaust.
Everday Kabbalah offers numerous meditations, and teaching for healing.