Ambulance Lights and Passover
4.18.22
Written by Rabbi Stephanie Shore
There are really only two reasons why one would not slow their fast pace to pull over to the right and let the blinking, loud and large ambulance pass. We either aren’t aware of it ie. DWD, Driving while Daydreaming, or we are in too much of a hurry to let the seriously harmed person within the blinking speed ship get to it’s prescribed destination. Both of these reasons are disconcerting.
If you have ever had a loved one in an ambulance you know what I mean. It is a most horrifying moment filled with the dread of death and the heart shattering awareness of emotional pain that is unbearable. This author has had two children in an ambulance and both times the engulfing fear was so deep within my being that even the hardest cry could not touch it.
It is for this reason, when I hear the deafening alarm of an ambulance that I expeditiously search my rear and side mirrors, twist and turn behind my steering wheel to quickly spot the lights in order to move out of it’s way.
“The light is green,” as my cognitive mind urges me to continue traveling. But in Freudian terms something is brought forth from my unconscious mind. The dam holding back the reservoir of feelings from my past experience causes me to stop and quietly utter a prayer for the poor soul who is being transported and his or her family.
For a few second traffic ignores the neatly dotted lines in the asphalt and makes way for the fast-approaching rescue vehicle…. Traffic parts.
So that’s think link to the title of this article? Water’s part, traffic parts? At first glance yes but let’s go deeper.
Passover is a 7-day festival for those in Israel and 8 days for those of us in the Diaspora. We kick it off with Passover Seders and follow by reminding ourselves that G!d freed us from slavery by eating matza for 7 or 8 days depending on our tradition.
Why do we need all that time to be reminded? Couldn’t we just proclaim, “We were slaves and now we are free,” during our Seder and then move on? The answer is clearly no however we are programmed to move on, carry on and not to linger too long. Just like our impulse to keep driving, we aren’t used to pausing for an extended period to become mindfully conscious.
We go through life DWD, Driving While Daydreaming. Accomplishing everyday tasks on autopilot. Passover however causes us to initiate a long pause.
Of course, there is the brutal reminder of physical slavery. A life where one does his or her best to simply survive the day. A bitter awareness we can conjure in mere moments. But during the days of Passover we are called to uncover the more elusive causes of our slavery and cultivate an inner freedom.
So many of us live as a slave to the norms or to the societal groups we wish to adjust ourselves. Many of us align ourselves with expectations of family, following a group minded blueprint which we follow with little or no inner contemplation as to what our authentic truth is.
This Passover we can stop, pull our proverbial selves off the racetrack of life and ask ourselves a few questions… maybe 4?
Why have I become enslaved to the expectations of others? Why am I enslaved to marketing exploits flooding my mind thinking that if I own a certain product I will be ‘happy?’ Does the societal group I belong to represent the ideals and moral compass I wish to embrace? And Do I wait for an emergency to slow down enough to appreciate and dedicate time, energy and love to the people I most care about?
A daunting interlude, a contemplation that we would rather steer clear of. Most likely but one we would do well to recognize.
Like searching for the Afikomen let’s search with acute awareness the ways we have allowed ourselves to become captive. We have been given awe inspiring imagery of Passover to recall with gratitude our freedom from slavery in Egypt. Let’s, each of us, find our inner Egypt and part the way for an inner freedom that will truly bring us to peace and freedom.
