Evolution or Revolution
Are you just evolving or are you revolutionizing your life? What part of your life could use a real makeover? What is the REAL reason that we eat matzah on Passover? Why is this month the first month of the year when our new year is 6 months away?
To be Jewish we have to answer a question with a question: Do you believe in evolution? Of course you do, after all you have been evolving ever since you were born. In the scientific sense of the word, evolution is our attempt to explain how we went from simple to complex, from one to many and from small to gigantic. And one scientific theory on how that all happened is the theory of evolution.
There is one question however that science does not ask and probably cannot ask and that is; how did something come from nothing? For starters science can’t quantify nothing. How do you measure nothing? So science deals with what it can measure and that is something. And we use our knowledge to study that something to figure out how it works and changes.
Nothing to something is not an evolutionary process it is a revolutionary process. How many evolutionary years would it take for nothing to become something? The answer is never. Evolution only begins after something is here. To go from nothing to something is a quantum leap, a revolutionary leap that happens in a flash.
Let me give you a relevant personal example to make this more tangible: If you have a natural musical talent (something) and you develop it that would be an evolutionary development and it would not be too hard, it would take time and we could predict how long it will take. How about if you are a nice person (another name for someone who can’t say no because he does not want to offend anyone), and you decide that you would like to change your nature and become a good person ( a person who does what is right even if the other person may not like it), that is a revolutionary jump, it is extremely difficult, when it happens it only takes an instant (you are just so sick and tired of being sick and tired and you just change) and no one can predict when it will happen.
The same thing with creation of nothing into something, it is much more difficult then say changing something simple into something more complex, it only takes an instant and no one can predict when it will happen.
It reminds me of the joke of the professor who finally is able to clone the perfect human being; a disease free, happy and successful human being. He turns to G-d and says, “You see I am a better creator then you, you created a flawed human being and I have created a perfect specimen. He challenges G-d to a public showdown; G-d agrees and shows up to the professor’s lab. The professor has prepared 2 huge piles of dirt and he turns to G-d and says, “Are you ready?”, G-d responds, “Yes I am ready, but you have to get your own dirt!!!”. It is an infinite leap to go from nothing to something, to “create your own dirt”. Once you have dirt then it is not an infinite leap to create other things from it. Nothing to something is revolutionary not evolutionary.
So what does this have to do with Passover? Matzah? And what is the lesson for us today?
Why do we eat Matzah? Ask anyone who has ever been to a Seder and they will tell you that it is because when we left Egypt we were in such a hurry that the dough did not have time to rise, and that is why we eat matzah that did not have time to rise.
My question to you is; Who cares? Why is this detail of our exodus from Egypt so important that each and every generation carefully transmit not just the story of our exodus but that we did not have time for the dough to rise. Why is that detail so significant?
Secondly; Why were we in a rush? Were we rushing or were we being rushed?
Thirdly; If we were in such a rush why did we leave at noon and not early in the morning so we could beat the camel traffic? Even if we were in a rush we had plenty of time for the dough to rise? The death of the first born was at midnight and we did not leave till noon the next day, that is close to 12 hours, how long does it take for dough to rise?
Now let’s try to pull it all together: Was leaving Egypt an evolutionary event or a revolutionary event, can slaves free themselves? Was this natural growth or a quantum leap? Did we evolve into a nation or did G-d make us into a nation? Could we have done it on our own?
The answer is no. this was a revolutionary leap. We went from slavery to becoming a nation of priests and leaders. There is no evolutionary timetable for how long it takes for that to happen. When it happens it is a miracle and it only takes an instant. And that is why we eat matzah, to remind us that it was not a natural, evolutionary development, but rather it was a quantum, revolutionary, infinite jump. And that is why we had no time. From the time we became free until the time we left was a flash and in that flash the dough could not rise.
This detail we need to carefully transmit to our children and to all future generations for this sums up the entire story of Exodus. G-d in a flash made the infinite leap for us and took us from slavery to freedom, from nothing into something.
This is not just an historical event that happened long ago but rather every single year the same thing occurs. We are miraculously elevated to a place we could never get to naturally. And that is why we our new year is not in the first month of the year. You see we have a new year that celebrates or natural and evolutionary progress, called Rosh Hashana and we have a new year that celebrates our revolutionary jumps, called Passover. Now you know why it is that Jewish people have been involved in so many revolutions throughout history (some we are proud of others not). It is in our blood. Abraham had a revolutionary idea; monotheism can and should be taught to everyone. When G-d came to the Jewish people he gave us a revolutionary mission; to bring G-d down to earth. We immediately said yes, it was a perfect fit; a revolutionary idea for a revolutionary people.
So this year at the seder as you eat the matzah remind yourself and your family why we REALLY eat matzah and tap into the revolutionary power invested in this holiday and tap into your own infinite, G-dly soul, and make a quantum leap in your life.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Zalman Marcus