By the age of fifteen, we think we have it all figured out. There is nothing new to learn. The rest of life is simply reaffirming what we already know to be true. “I always knew that we can’t trust that guy.” “This family is good, and from that family stay away.” We have a certain way of seeing the world, and we lock into it. As we get older, it becomes the “truth.”
We are stuck in our perception. We are arrogant. We believe that what we think of life and what we think of ourselves and others is true.
The staple food of Passover is matzah. It represents the food of freedom. Why?
Matzah, as opposed to bread, is a humble food. Lots of care was taken that the dough should not rise. Matzah is the process of humbling ourselves. Not breaking ourselves; rather, breaking our misinformed ego. It’s the realization that I don’t know. What I think is simply that— what I think. It’s not the truth. We never know the full truth.
Matzah is the gateway to freedom. The message of matzah is that instead of living in our self-fulfilling prophecy of reality, we let go and become open to a new way of seeing things. There is always another way to see almost everything.
Who am I beyond what I think of myself? This is food (for thought) of hope. This is food (for thought) of healing.
Dare to let go of the shackles of your intellect. Dare to question what was solid and “true” for you yesterday. This is where you will meet the G-d of Abraham. This is the G-d that took us—and takes us out of our perpetual state—of Egypt.
Dare to let go, and you will fall into the all-embracing hands of G-d.
The Impressionist artist Pierre-August Renoir (1841–1919) once said, “I am beginning to know how to paint. It has taken me over fifty years of work to achieve this result, which is still far from complete.”
Renoir said this in 1913, at the age of seventy-two. By this time, the artist was a master at his craft. He was well established and considered by many to be the greatest living painter in France.
He knew the secret of not knowing. The secret of freedom.
RABBI YY JACOBSON
