Taking Stock

This week’s double-Parsha is the last in the book of Shemos (Exodus), the second of the Five Books of Moses.

Whenever we go from one phase to another in life, we are conscious what preparations we have made for the period we are entering. Just as Rosh Hashana provides a time for reflection on the past and preparation for the future, so the month of Nissan (which begins this coming Sunday), like any new month, marks a time to take stock and move forward.

The book of Shemos maps out our entire spiritual role. It begins by describing the descent of the Children of Israel into Egypt. This is compared to the soul’s descent into the body, into this physical world. Afterwards, we read about the hardship of slavery in Egypt. This is compared to our spiritual service of elevating and refining the physical world. We end with the Exodus from Egypt and the subsequent receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai the power was given to bring spirituality into the physical realm, to make a dwelling-place for the Divine Presence in every aspect of our lives.

The word ‘Pekudei’ means an accounting, a reckoning. Our Parsha concludes by summarizing the donations towards the building of the Tabernacle, literally the ‘dwelling-place’. Similarly, we conclude this phase by examining our own accomplishments. What was accomplished, and through what means? What did I do to allow spirituality to creep into the physical world? How did I elevate the mundane in my everyday life, creating a dwelling place for the Divine?

As we go into the month of Nissan which includes Pesach (Passover), the Festival of Freedom, we prepare for a new, even greater phase in our everyday accomplishments. As mentioned before, the Hebrew word for Egypt is Mitzrayim, from the root of the word Metzarim meaning boundaries and limitations. By each of us going out of their own personal Egypt, by breaking beyond our limitations in a positive and joyous manner, we are getting ready for Pesach, the festival marking the ‘going out of Egypt’.

This week the additional reading, Parshas Hachodesh, discusses the first Mitzva (commandment) given to the Jewish people, the sanctification of the months according to the cycle of the moon.

In the first mitzvah commanded us as a nation, G-d decreed that we link our lives to the moon. The moon begins to shine on the first of the month and increases in luminance till the fifteenth day, when she becomes full; from the fifteenth till the thirtieth day, her light wanes, till on the thirtieth it is not seen at all.

The Jewish nation emulates the moon. Like the moon, they wax and wane through history, each diminution but a prelude to another rebirth, another renewal.

May each of us, along with the entire world, find true freedom and break free in this month of Freedom, through our connection to the Infinite.

Shabbat Shalom