Day 33: The Stories We Carry

As we mentioned, Tractate Pesachim is all about the formation, how we commemorate the formation of the Jewish people, which is at the heart of Passover itself.

It's really about Jewish identity, and we see this in such fascinating ways.

The Talmud in Tractate Pesachim, on page 96A, notes something extraordinarily interesting.

It notices that there is a difference between the original Pascal lamb that we brought as we were exiting Egypt and the one that was commanded for all future generations.

Now, all of the laws of how to bring the sacrificial lamb really derive from that original sacrifice that we brought as we were leaving on our way out from Egypt.

This is the formation of the Jewish people.

And all the laws derive from that first telling.

However, there are some very notable differences, and one of the differences that the Talmud highlights is that when they brought that initial sacrifice as they were leaving Egypt, God tells them, "You gotta do it ""Do it quickly.

Do it in haste.

You gotta get out of Egypt.

Go very quickly." But all future sacrifices, even though we kind of reenact and try to envision ourselves as if we're leaving Egypt, there is no law that you had to offer the yearly Pascal lamb on Passover, the Korban Pesach, and give it very quickly.

Like, it- that didn't transfer over.

And the question is, why? The Talmud notes, like, you don't have to do this quickly.

That was only the first time.

All other time, you can kind of do it slowly and carefully.

And why is that? So a Hasidic teacher that I've already mentioned so many times, Rav Tzaddok HaKohen of Lublin, who's the Hasidic thinker that I think has influenced and shaped my understanding of Judaism more than anybody else, opens up his first work of Hasidic thought, known as Tzidkas HaTzaddik, which is a work that he wrote just as he was entering Hasidic life for the first time.

He wasn't born a Hasidic Jew.

He came to it much later in life.

He opens entire work up with this idea, and he explains that Passover is all about how we cultivate Jewish identity, how we really build our relationship and practice with God.

And he says, when you first start, and this is that kind of the zeal of the convert, when you first start, you have to move quickly.

You have to do it with passion, with excitement.

""Do it quickly.

Don't wait for all the right moments to align.

Don't wait till all the stars align." You know, sometimes you're at a wedding and you're waiting for just the right moment to dance, you know, in the central circle with the bride or groom.

And, like, you're waiting and you're waiting.