When the Light of the Seder Begins to Fade…

Seder night has come and gone.  The great light of redemption and hope seems far off. We yearn to have that moment back –  to feel at one with the cosmic movement and direction of our universe, but the blast of light has dissipated leaving us empty and exhausted.

Was it real?  Did we truly experience freedom, even for a moment?

The Other Side wants us to question our Seder experience.  It wants us to believe that we actually do not believe.  True, others do believe, but not you and not us.

Our test after Seder night is to ensure that even though the initial blast of light poured on us by the Creator has now faded, there remains a path of growth we can follow when the doubt creep in. These are the doubts that we tell ourselves only we have –  not others.  However,  that is exactly what we are meant to believe in order to lose hope in the midst of our journey to our own inner redemption.

Our inner light may have dissipated, but the path forward remains – specific to each one of us. This is what Sefirat HaOmer is all about.  Pesach may have been moved to the faded memory of our annual redemptive yearnings, but we can still climb our of our world of darkness and constricted God awareness.

Yet, now it will take work –  by us.

There are no freebies after Pesach. No days of great light and miraculous awakenings.  God expects us to yearn and strive for change and growth.  This is the only way it can last and truly rectify our finite vision of reality, merging it with the infinite will embedded in our personal experience.

Our only challenge is whether we will strive to initiate our own development to propel ourselves forward on our own journey.

(Based on Otzar HaYirah Pesach 95)