Shabbat Pesach

How can we bring the quality of temimut to our lives?

Reflection by Mira Neshama Niculescu, OHL Teacher

"The Shabbat of Pessach, we read again from the book of shemot, about the night before Bnei Israel left Egypt.

That night, they are to eat what is called the Korban Pessach, the Pessach offering: a lamb that has to be eaten in an undivided way, as the passuk insistently repeats:

בְּבַ֤יִת אֶחָד֙ יֵֽאָכֵ֔ל לֹֽא־תוֹצִ֧יא מִן־הַבַּ֛יִת מִן־הַבָּשָׂ֖ר ח֑וּצָה וְעֶ֖צֶם לֹ֥א תִשְׁבְּרוּ־בֽוֹ

`it must be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the meat out of the house to the outside, neither shall you break any of its bones.` (shemot 12.46)

The oneness of the korban pessach refers to the animal itself which will be eaten: it cannot be divided between several homes, nor its bones broken. And it refers to the people who it eat: it has to be eaten at once, together, and as one.

Reading it in the light of the Tehilim, The midrash Rabbah offers a spiritual reading of this very pragmatic choq (decree):

יְהִי לִבִּי תָמִים בְּחֻקֶּיךָ

 `May my heart be complete in (following) your decrees.`

For the midrash, the archetypal decree this prayer of David ha melekh refers to, is the korban pessach: what we offer must be whole as a testimony of our own wholeness.

It actually goes deeper: since the function of an offering is to represent symbolically and vicariously the offering of our own life, what we offer becomes an embodiment of our own wholeness.

In a world without a Temple, we don’t offer korbanot anymore. So all of our spiritual practices become our avodah, our holy service. What we do, but most of all, the way we do it, speak of our wholeness. Am I fully there in what am I doing?

How can I bring my whole presence to my present experience, in order to be tamim: whole, genuine, and to act with integrity?

This is what mindfulness practice is about.
When we set an intention, repeatedly, to be fully present, to whatever it is that we are doing, there is a quality of temimut, of wholeness, to our actions, and to ourselves, which can be very healing for ourselves and those around us.

As we come to the Seder table this shabbat, and as we get ready to enter into the festival, may we bring our full selves to everything we do, to everything we say, or simply to our own presence.”

Chag Sameach & Shabbat Shalom from Or HaLev