Actually - it's not ! Not until we receive the Torah, that is. Receiving the Torah is what Hashem took us out of Egypt for, after all. But it's a long, hard road of personal growth to go from the spiritual depths we sunk to in Mitzrayim until we are fit to receive the Torah.
That's why Pesach is so long - to allow us time to do this.
Consider this small aspect of our growth process - on the first day of Pesach - we were physically removed from the tumah of Mitzrayim. On the second ( the first day of the Omer ) we are commanded to bring a korban to Hashem - dedicating the first crop of grain - barley.
Why would we dedicate barley as the first crop ? Shouldn't we dedicate wheat, the staple grain of people, as opposed to barley, the staple grain of animals ?
No ( the obvious answer, of course - but why ? )
You see - when Hashem took us out of Egypt we weren't worthy of serving Him. We had scarcely any mitzvos to our credit and were generally impure. At that first redemption - we could only dedicate our physical selves to Hashem - because that's the only part of ourselves that we had any connection to. As such, our first korban is the one of barley, animal food, to symbolize the dedication of our physical ( or animalistic ) selves to Hashem.
Once we complete an intense seven week process of purification - we are better in touch with those higher faculties that make us people ( see Targum Onkelos on the creation of Man, Bereishis 2:7 ) and we can dedicate to Hashem the first korban of the staple grain of people, wheat, the korban of Shavuos .
That's why Pesach is so long - to allow us time to do this.
Consider this small aspect of our growth process - on the first day of Pesach - we were physically removed from the tumah of Mitzrayim. On the second ( the first day of the Omer ) we are commanded to bring a korban to Hashem - dedicating the first crop of grain - barley.
Why would we dedicate barley as the first crop ? Shouldn't we dedicate wheat, the staple grain of people, as opposed to barley, the staple grain of animals ?
No ( the obvious answer, of course - but why ? )
You see - when Hashem took us out of Egypt we weren't worthy of serving Him. We had scarcely any mitzvos to our credit and were generally impure. At that first redemption - we could only dedicate our physical selves to Hashem - because that's the only part of ourselves that we had any connection to. As such, our first korban is the one of barley, animal food, to symbolize the dedication of our physical ( or animalistic ) selves to Hashem.
Once we complete an intense seven week process of purification - we are better in touch with those higher faculties that make us people ( see Targum Onkelos on the creation of Man, Bereishis 2:7 ) and we can dedicate to Hashem the first korban of the staple grain of people, wheat, the korban of Shavuos .
No comments:
Post a Comment