Purim Pesach Omer Shavuot Class 4

This is the fourth class in the Preparation for this 90 day period from Zion Adar through Shavuot. Class one and two dealt with Purim and Removing Doubt. Class 3 deals with the period of the first 13 Days of Nissan. Class 4 begins the Preparation for Pesach.

As one starts one's preparation for Pesach usually one starts to clean. One starts to clean physically and then one starts to meditate through the action of physical cleaning on the spiritual cleaning that one needs to do within oneself. This year i would like to share a change with you. Let us start to evaluate on the following prior to starting our physical cleaning and then let this be the frame of reference for our spiritual cleansing.

Pesach is both a spiritual process and a physical process. Pesach should be a spiritual tool to achieve a higher state of consciousness. Let us start our spiritual process by answering the question – What is the difference between being spiritual and being religious?

One Answer:

When one makes his desire to receive to be consistent with HaShem's Will (The Plan of Creation) that is being religious.

When one knows his desire to receive was created by HaShem and therefore His Desire is the Plan of Creation (HaShem's Will) – that is being Spiritual.

Say the Ana Bekoach and contemplate these two short sentences for 5 minutes and then start your cleaning. You will find your Seder to be an exceptional spiritual experience if you start in this manner.

Remember never believe a word i say, yet please try what I suggest.

Pesach Preparation

Pesach preparation starts the day after Purim and is usually thought of as spring cleaning. Yet it is much more as we will begin to see in the class and a significant amount of gematriot associated with the words and letters of Pesach.

Before we start the gematria let us remind you of a teaching from class 3. Getting "crazy" over physical cleaning for the spring without realizing that we need to cleanse spiritually is so inappropriate. Please look at the English translation of the Prayers associated with the Burning of the Chametz. In that prayer we say that any chametz i did not remove is null and void and does not exist. So why clean at all? We will answer that in a little bit.

Some Pesach Gematriot

Prior to the Holiday of Pesach is an unusual Shabbat. It is unusual since it has a special Name but no special readings or rituals. It is called Shabbat HaGadol. Gadol translates as big, great, or large. Shabbat HaGadol translates as The Great Shabbat.

The gematria of HaGadol הגדל is 42. As all Kabbalah students know 42 relates to the Ana Bekoach and Creation.

Please know that the word Gadol can be spelled fully with a Vav or using the Vowel called a Kibbutz. The Kibbutz uses three dots in a diagonal line written below the letter.

In the Chumash (5 Books of Moshe) HaGadol appears 26 times. 26 is the Gematria of the Tetragrammaton. 18 of those times HaGadol is written with the Kibbutz vowel. 18 is the gematria of the word Chai which means life. An interesting fact known mainly to mathematicians is the square root of 18 is 4.24. 424 is the gematria of the Name Mashiach Ben David. Of course people will say all of this is coincidence. Those who know the system will also know that there is no coincidence only the Plan of HaShem.

What does all of this teach us? Come and See the meaning of these clues, the plan of creation.

The Kabbalists teach that Shabbat HaGadol is the gateway to Pesach just as The Gate of 42 is the final gate before entering the Holy of Holies in the Temple. The gateway to Pesach is more than just a metaphor. Of course one can limit one's perspective to just the metaphor or one can perceive the metaphor as something real as well.

The Sages also teach that the weekly reading of the Torah Scroll is a circle without beginning and without end. They allude to this by having the reading on Simchat Torah be both the last reading including the last verse and the first reading including the first verse in the Torah Scroll. It is interesting to note that the first verse has 7 words and the last verse has 12 words.

Do you see the connection to the annual solar cycle? Let me remind you that the Hebrew Calendar has 7 leap years in a total calendar cycle of 19 years. For your information 7 plus 12 equals 19.

When we look at these two verses together, there are 2 of the 22 Hebrew Letters not utilized in these two verses. The two Letters are Sameck and Pey. This word סף in modern Hebrew means a threshold. If spelled with a Kibbutz vowel under the Sameck it means “End” as in End Sof or Endless World. It is also interesting to note that the Kabbalists teach us to have a special reading of 6 verses on each of the first 12 days of Nissan in order to take control of the months of the year. These 12 days are the threshold to the Holiday of Pesach spelled Pey Samech Chet. פסח

Our Sages also teach that the letter Chet in Chametz spelled Chet Mem Tzadi חמץ gets transformed into Matzah spelled Mem Tzadi Hey מצה through letter substitution using the parts of the mouth. A Chet can become a Hey through this transformation. We will look at the relationship between Chametz and Matzah below

Returning to the first and last verses in the Chumash we find that by joining the Chet to the Sameck and Pey we reveal 19 letters being utilized in these two verses. Remember there are 19 years in the Hebrew Calendar cycle. Is this a coincidence? Or is it a hint to us that the 7 days of Pesach following the threshold of the first 12 days of Nissan are actually a separate dimension of time?

If the 7 days of Pesach are another dimension of time, and I know for myself that they are, then the threshold to this dimension is the 15 steps of the Seder which we will discuss below. It also explains why there is a 7th day of Pesach Holiday. This allows a process of gentle return to our dimension of time.

When one knows that the time runs backwards to our time in the spiritual worlds then the above makes even more sense. It also helps to explain the cleaning associated with the chametz of Pesach. It also explains the Chasidic Minhag to hold the Seder of Mashiach on the 8th day of the Holiday for those who celebrate 8 days due to living outside of the Land of Israel.

Just as the Children of Israel went out of Egypt – crossed the Yam Suf (which was a spiritual cleansing) and arrived for the 72 hours (3 Days) at Mt Sinai, we will go out of our Egypt – Cross the limitations (ends) we create for ourselves and elevate through the 49 Sefirot associated with the Omer and arrive at our Mt Sinai (the Holiday of Shavuot).

Here are some additional gematria hints regarding Pesach and Mashiach. When we subtract the 7 days of Pesach from the 365 days of normal time we are left with 358 days. 358 is the gematria of Mashiach. This is also hinted at within the Torah by the 210 years that the Children of Israel spent in Egypt as slaves to Pharaoh. When we add the gematria of Pesach which is 148 to the 210 we have a value of 358 again hinting at the process of manifesting Mashiach.

So we see that the Holiday of Pesach is otherworldly and a threshold to Mashiach consciousness. Let's approach Pesach this year with Mashiach as a goal and the breaking of our limitations as the process we experience during the 7 or 8 days of Pesach.

Matzah and Chametz

Matzah is made from wheat grains or any of the other grains. Matzah is bread. Chametz is bread. What is the difference? On the physical level Matzah is bread made with a time limitation. Matzah is flour mixed with water. This process is monitored so that from the moment of mixing until the Matzah is removed from the fire takes no more than 18 minutes.

Why is there this 18 minute limit? Grains usually have yeast associated with them. This yeast expands when mixed with water and heat. Yeast is what makes bread and cake rise. Yeast is chametz. Kabbalah teaches that when yeast expands it is a metaphor for the ego. Therefore, when we remove yeast from what we eat, we are removing our ego.

Actually, it is impossible to remove yeast from grains. This is because yeast is always mixed with grains by winds and other methods. So the best we can do is to limit the time that the yeast has to expand itself.

That is why we limit the time of cooking and guard the wheat from mixing with water except as planned within the 18 minutes. When Matzah is guarded as the Halacha describes then it is referred to as Shemurah Matzah or Guarded Matzah.

Children are taught that the reason we eat matzah on Pesach Night at the Seder is that we were rushed out of Egypt and did not have time to let the bread rise. This is patently false as the Torah attests. Pharaoh told us to leave Egypt after midnight with the 10th Plague – the killing of the first born. The Torah tells us we did not leave until the morning light. The bread could have been allowed to rise. So why did we eat Matzah then and why do we eat Matzah now? As students of Kabbalah we never follow something due to a physical or historical reason. We only do something for energy reasons.

Nissan is month that is created by the planet Mars. This is taught by the Sefer Yetzirah one of the oldest and most venerated Books of Kabbalah. Mars is known as the red planet and also the planet of wars and bloodshed. This astrological influence pours down upon our earth and every thing within its aspect. This means people, animals, plants and rocks. If we do not recognize this influence then we still will experience this influence. This means that people will be influenced to fight with family members or with other people. Of course, people can stop their reactions as we are taught to do with the tool of Binding by Striking.

Animals also have the ability to minimize this astrological influence since animals are controlled by their owners. Rocks and inanimate objects do not move and so the influence is significantly lessened.

Grains are to the plant kingdom what people are to the animal kingdom. Grains have the largest desire to receive within the plant kingdom just as people have the largest desire to receive within the animal kingdom. As such much of the astrological influence is absorbed by the grains during the month of Nissan. If we people eat that grain as bread with the expanded ego of the yeast we will become influenced by this energy of war bloodshed and general arguments and mayhem. In fact, one of my teachers describes the grain in a store owned by an unobservant Jew to be the equivalent of an Atomic Bomb going off inside of the Jew who eats it. It will cause him to fight and create arguments and battle in all of his world during this period from Pesach until Shavuot.

This is the reason we do not eat chametz during the 7 days of Pesach or 8 days outside of the Land of Israel. And we do not eat chametz that was owned by a Jew during these same days. The actual Mitzvah is to eat Matzah only at the Seder Meals, not at all days of the Pesach Holiday. This makes it easier on people with stomach issues and finding Matzah too binding. Of course one may start to ask why they find it too binding but not other people? The main point is to not eat anything or use anything with chametz within it.

That means anything with a large desire to receive such as the item lanolin which is an extract of lambs. So there are many people who do not utilize their normal hair shampoo because it contains lanolin. There are many additional items that are considered chametz. If you are not sure many synagogues put out lists of items that are chametz. You can also send me an email and I will research the issue for you. I am not a Rabbi but I do have access to people who are knowledgeable in this area.

Selling Chametz

It is authorized by the Rabbis, in order to avoid financial loss and to have chametz products on hand immediately after Pesach to sell your chametz products (in new boxes not open boxes) to a non Jew. I am willing to facilitate this process for any of my students who wish me to do so, providing they follow the procedures outlined below.

Send me an email with the following information no later than noon ____________. This still leaves me time to arrange to sell this to a non Jew. Please note this is a true contract. The non Jew purchases the material from me and does not promise in writing to return it after Pesach. Although he always does return it for the price paid he does not have to do this.

email information

Your Name:

Your Address where the chametz is stored. Include accurate descriptions such as the cabinets marked “Sold for Pesach” located at your home or business address. Once Pesach starts these locations do not belong to you for 8 days. Please make sure you put a sign on these locations indicating they have been sold for Pesach.

Description of the Chametz.

I will respond to you by email as soon as possible to confirm the Selling of the Chametz to me and then I will sell it to a non Jew. Without that electronic record the universe continues to send the Astrological influences into your chametz. This is a very serious matter and I strongly suggest you take advantage of this arrangement.

Searching and Burning Chametz

The night before Pesach Seder as soon after sundown as possible we have a Kabbalistic minhag to search for chametz. Actually, we should already have cleaned our house of any and all chametz and have sold any chametz we are leaving over to use after Pesach.

What we actually do is wrap some gross chametz into small paper bags - 10 in number. We then have one adult of the household hide these bags in plain sight so as to include the children in the search. Then the whole family searches for the chametz. As each bag is found it is identified with a Sefirah from Keter down to Malchut. This is done for each adult in the house. These Chametz Sefirot are then gathered together and put next to the door to be taken outside on the morrow and burned. This burning is destroying the negative Sefirot just as the 10 Plagues did in Egypt.

There will be links to these rituals sent to you in Nissan email for the 13th of Nissan ritual. Please look for them. Or write to me if you do not get the links or can not find this ritual in a Pesach Machzor that you have or can find.

These rituals may seem silly - especially the Search for Chametz since we say at the end that any chametz i did not see or find is null and void, ownerless, and non existent - yet they are very important to your life's battles this coming year spiritually. Please do them. Remember do not believe a word i say but please do what i ask of you. I am asking you to participate in a Seder if you are able to find one. If you are not able to find one then write to me and i will assist you.

Please note: The selling of chametz has no charge associated with it. Of course we do ask for donations - yet donations are not necessary for us to handle your chametz sell.

The Seder

The purpose of the Seder is to do exactly the meaning of the word Seder. Seder means to put your life “in order.” To do this takes 15 steps. We will now start to explain each of these steps and their Names.

The Names of the Seder Stages

Kabbalah relates the 15 stages to the lines in the Tree of Life and the Hebrew Letters associated with those lines. Here is your first introduction to this information.

Kadaish - The Letter Tav

Urchatz - The letter Nun

Karpas - The Letter Mem

Yachatz - The Letter Lamed

Magid - The Letter Reish

Rochtzah - The Letter Sameck

Motzi - The Letters Caf and Pey

Motza - The Letter Alef

Maror - The Letter Yood

Koraich - The Letter Chet

Shulchan Oraich - The Letter Tzadik

Tzafon - The Letter Dalet

Bairach - The Letter Shin

Hallel - The Letters Hey and Vav

Nirtzach - The balance of the Letters - Beth, Gimmel, Zion, Tet, Ayin and Koof

It is important for everyone to say these Names at the beginning of the Seder and also at each stage of the Seder. Since most people do not know about the connection to the Letters they do not say the Names of the Letters with the Names of the Stages. This is a mistake and it is highly recommended to say both the Letter Name and the Stage Name both in the beginning of the Seder and at each stage.

Here is one very important hint about the Seder. For years people have gone hungry at the Seder since the meal does not start until after the Telling of the Story. Sometimes people made other people wait to eat until 10 or even 11 o'clock. This is totally unnecessary. You may eat anything your host and hostess serve starting right after the stage called Karpas, EXCEPT MATZAH. That must wait until the stage of Motzi. Believe me this hint is truly quite practical since many people are not aware of this truth.

The current minhag is to use a Haggadah to facilitate the Seder. The word haggadah means to tell a story. And that is exactly what we do this Pesach night. We tell the story of our redemption from Egypt by the strong hand of HaShem.

We will explain more about the steps and the connection to the Letters in our next class on Sunday morning at 10:30 AM West Coast Time. We hope to have you contact us on the conference call.