Monday, March 25, 2013

Sweetness

R' Shlomo Carlebach

Reb Nachman talks about some thing called Noam Elyon, a kind of holy sweetness which flows down from Heaven. This sweetness is so whole, that if your mind isn't whole, and if your emotions aren't whole then you can't taste it. You don't have the plate in whch G-d can give you the taste of holy sweetness. Matza is the simplest bread in the world, just flour and water. No salt, no pepper. Reb Nachman says that on Yom Tov the Noam Elyon flows from Heaven in simplicity. If you are not whole you cannot receive it. The matza we eat gives over to us its simplicity, wholeness. Matza tastes so good because it is a piece of the sweetness of Noam Elyon.

What makes us so perverted? We put so much work into our little piece of bread. What do people do for the few dollars they make? They put their whole heart and soul into it, and each time they do, they become more and more slaves. The matza we eat on Pesach doesn't take much time to make. We put the least amount of time into our food, and the rest of the time we have is for doing great things, to be free.

When you eat the matza you really have to be with it, you can't talk or joke. The piece has to be really big, and you sit and mamash eat matza. The holy Sanzer would sit after the seder, and put his hands on his stomach, and say "Ay! Tonight my stomach did so many mitzvos!"

The afikomen, the last piece of matza is realty not from this world. We put it away, we hide it, and then we eat it. It is coming from a completely hidden world. When we eat the afikomen all our prayers are answered in that moment.

On Pesach we celebrate freedom, which means that G-d in Heaven opens the gates of freedom. This world is just a vessel for higher worlds, so something is happening in Heaven on Pesach night, and actually the whole month of Nisan, the month of freedom. We see all of nature becoming free. All the little seeds who were sitting under the earth and crying are now coming out, becoming free. Everything begins to grow.