* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
A not-so-young single woman sent me the following note after Pesach. I believe that her powerful message can give strength to anyone, regardless of their situation:
“Shalom, Sivan. I had a pretty lousy holiday, but on the seventh day of Pesach I remembered an idea I once heard:
Every holiday we receive a gift–we are replenished with faith and holiness. We receive this gift without even realizing it. If we participated in a Seder - drank four cups of wine, read the Haggadah and ate matzah– this gift is ours.
While it’s true that the more we invested in the Seder, the more obvious the gift, yet even if we were anxious, sad, bitter, ashamed, and envious of our married sister sitting there surrounded by her children, and the last thing we wanted was another holiday like this one - God has still given us these gifts.
We ate matzah-boom! We received an injection of faith for the entire year. This dose of faith is absorbed into our bodies and souls. It doesn’t matter how we felt. Consciously or unconsciously, we have been transformed by this experience. By participating in these mitzvot, we have been granted renewed energy.
From now through the rest of the year, as we face struggles and challenges, sadness and despair, we can draw strength from these gifts we received on Pesach. For just as God was with our ancestors in Egypt, He hears our cries and feels our pain, and in the end, our personal redemption will come too.”
