At the Pesach Seder at the Kabbalah Centre in Manhattan, the relatively modest dining area was packed with at least 300 people, although nowhere near the 2,000 said to be attending the seder in San Diego with Karen and Rav Berg, who founded the Kabbalah Centre and have built it into an international organization focused on teaching the universal truth of Kabbalah to non-Jews and Jews alike. Still, during the "connection" service that preceded the communal meal, there was Lucy Liu in the front row on the women's side of the congregation. I didn't even notice her, dressed in demure ninja black, until my new friend Leo pointed her out to me. Leo's a jazz drummer from Philly who now lives in New Jersey and comes down for the occasional Shabbat or holiday service. As in Orthodox and Conservative synagogues and most mosques, the men and women were seated separately, the men all in white, except for the occasional pair of tan Dockers or Yankees cap in lieu of a yarmulke, the women mainly in black but with no special dress code.
The hour-long "connection" involved prolonged periods of rhythmic
clapping and pounding on the large wooden altar, chantings and
recitations in Aramaic or Hebrew, and the singing of alternately
propulsive and haunting melodies. Since I don't know either language, I was reduced to reading the
English translations in the special Pesach prayer book and humming the
melodies as I clapped along. A large segment of the men's side
occasionally joined the group of three to six leaders at the altar,
atop a series of polished wood steps. Then the intensity and speed
of the clapping increased and at pinnacles of emotion we stomped our feet as well. At the repetition of Kadosh ("Holy") the
entire group jumped straight up and down with great force. It's hard
not to pick up the spirit, which is not unlike being in an African-American Holiness
Church.
The most intriguing parts of the
prayer book and Pesach Haggadah are the footnotes and other commentary, which
address many of the conventional readings and
critiques of the "historical" background. The Egptians, they say, were masters of the material world,
unmatched by any in this regard since the building of the pyramids. The
Israelites were not literally enslaved but were captive to their own
material well being in Egypt. That's why they kept begging Moses to
bring them back whenever the desert slog got especially onerous. Or that the slaughter of the Amalekites was really intended as metaphor: The Lord's instructions to kill every man, woman, and child
of the enemy consists of coded directions to destroy every vestige of egoism
within oneself.
The same goes for the use of unleavened bread (matzoh) and the temporary elimination of all leavened breaks, cakes, cookies from the diet, as we seek to eliminate all puffery from the ego. The inflated ego, which in Kabbalah is called the Opponent or the Satan (pronounced suh-TAHN) is the enemy of spiritual growth and genuine inner power. This seems to be the primary lesson to be absorbed from the Pesach experience. There appears to be a certain parallel with the Christian concept of "giving up" something for Lent, the period of 40 days preceding Easter. Because the Jewish and Kabbalistic calendars are based on a combination of solar and lunar elements, Pesach usually falls close to Easter in the Christian (Julian or solar) calendar (as opposed to the strictly lunar calendar of Islam, which rotates by 13 days or so each year, and events such as Ramadan move through all four seasons over time). Both Christian and Kabbalistic celebrations are connected through ancient wisdom teachings to the birth of new life in spring. Christians celebrate Christ's triumph over death in the Resurrection (which most take literally, although some see metaphorically), whereas the Kabbalistic Pesach is based on the full moon in Aries (in the month of Nisan). Both traditions call for a death or cleansing of the old egoic self and the birth of a new, illuminated Self, our Higher Self, which in the Eastern traditions is called the Atman or Buddha Nature.
The same goes for the use of unleavened bread (matzoh) and the temporary elimination of all leavened breaks, cakes, cookies from the diet, as we seek to eliminate all puffery from the ego. The inflated ego, which in Kabbalah is called the Opponent or the Satan (pronounced suh-TAHN) is the enemy of spiritual growth and genuine inner power. This seems to be the primary lesson to be absorbed from the Pesach experience. There appears to be a certain parallel with the Christian concept of "giving up" something for Lent, the period of 40 days preceding Easter. Because the Jewish and Kabbalistic calendars are based on a combination of solar and lunar elements, Pesach usually falls close to Easter in the Christian (Julian or solar) calendar (as opposed to the strictly lunar calendar of Islam, which rotates by 13 days or so each year, and events such as Ramadan move through all four seasons over time). Both Christian and Kabbalistic celebrations are connected through ancient wisdom teachings to the birth of new life in spring. Christians celebrate Christ's triumph over death in the Resurrection (which most take literally, although some see metaphorically), whereas the Kabbalistic Pesach is based on the full moon in Aries (in the month of Nisan). Both traditions call for a death or cleansing of the old egoic self and the birth of a new, illuminated Self, our Higher Self, which in the Eastern traditions is called the Atman or Buddha Nature.
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