An extended comparison of
the "round" hand-kneaded matza and the full
moon.
A deeper
intention is implied when we reflect
that we are essentially a "moon"
people
and almost all of our major holidays,
such as Pesach and
Succot,
are connected with the appearance of the full moon.
The moon
with its cyclic fluctuations of size and light
represents the
feminine aspect of the Deity,
the Shechina,or what is called by the
Kabbalah,
the Or Chozar, the Reflecting Light.
This state, the
realization that one is not
the Source of Light,but merely its
receiver,
is conducive to an
inherent humbleness
and the creation of
a proper vessel for spiritual influx.
The same effect is achieved
hopefully
when we eat on Pesach
the matza, the "humble bread",
which is completely flat and without
the "yeasty" and
puffed up pretensions of ego.
The
seder ceremony
according to the mystics
is actually applied Kabbalah,
reenacting the formation of the worlds
and its tikun, or
rectification.
All of the curious customs and rituals in the seder
have the deepest mystical significance.
One of
them, Yachatz,
the breaking up of the matza into four or five parts,
represents the Shevirat Hakalim,
the Shattering of the Primordial
Vessels,
which were too fragile to contain
the powerful lights of
Tohu, or Chaos.
The
rectification occurs
almost at the end of the seder
during Tzafon and
the eating of the afikoman.
This process can be seen as a paradigm
for all spiritual and intellectual growth,
the necessity to break up
old forms and habits
in order to create something new and higher.
In
the
video this idea is "illustrated"
by the deliberate breaking
up
of the screen image almost to the point
where one thinks
that
something is going "wrong"
with the video machine or
oneself.
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