Picture from the Parasha: The victory is in the chase

22.04.2011                      18.Nisan, 5771                      Chel Hamo'ed 2; Tag 3 des Omer

Judentum:

Picture from the Parasha: The victory is in the chase

But thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself…’ (Leviticus 19:18).

The festival of Pessah is called “the time of our freedom” – the celebration of our exodus from Egypt. It is also biblically known as “the festival of matzot,” the holiday of unleavened bread.
A flat, rather tasteless dough which was never given a chance to rise, the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate after a long day of servitude – when in their exhausted physical state they prepared the simplest fare possible – was likewise the “bread” which our ancestors hurriedly prepared for their journey to freedom.
But is it not strange that this great liberation from enslavement to a mighty, totalitarian regime is symbolized by a halfbaked flour-and-water bread prevented from rising ? Furthermore, the Bible teaches us that “You shall count for yourselves – from the morrow of the festival day, from the day when you bring the Omer of the waving – seven weeks… and you shall offer a new meal offering… baked leavened loaves of bread” (Leviticus 23: 15-17) to celebrate the festival of first fruits – Shavuot….