GETTING READY FOR PESACH: PREPARING FOR TRUE BEING

As always, the preparations for Pesach bring with it a powerful feeling of renewal, which reminds me of Torah 6 in "Likutei Moharan" with its haunting message of "ana zamin lemehavei" - "I'm preparing to be". This Torah is about teshuvah, and it teaches us what teshuvah is all about: realizing that the way we've been living is very far from true being; it's just barely functioning and existing, like we're not even there. And, of course, true being means living our lives with awareness of Hashem and letting it affect everything we feel, think, say, and do.

It's interesting that the words "I'm preparing to be" - "אנא זמין למהוי" in Hebrew - have the gematria of 250, the same as the word "נר" - "a candle". So when we go searching with a candle during bedikas chametz, this is what we should have in mind: that we're looking for the last traces of what is holding us back from true being. It turns out that, in order to do this, we do need a candle with all that it signifies, and not just a flashlight, even if it's much more convenient, 

Then, having cleaned our homes from chametz and our hearts and mind from all the old and unhelpful patterns, we will be ready to start truly leaving and being on Pesach!

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