At Shabbos Lunch, Rabbi Mendel held up a belt, a sandal and a big wooden stick and asked students if they knew what they were about. A few guessed that it had something to do with Egyopt but weren’t sure what.
Yes, these three objects are from the Passover story. And yes, it is January now. But this week’s Torah portion has the last three of the ten plagues and the instructions for the Paschal Lamb. The verse tells us how the Paschal Lamb was to be eaten that last night in Egypt before the Exodus: “Eat it with your loins girded (that means a belt around your waist) while wearing shoes and with your walking stick in your hand”. (12:11)
The message is that we should eat it with one foot out the door, in great haste, with road-readiness, the Jews had to be ready to leave Egypt at any minute. For most big meals like Thanksgiving dinner people might loosen their belts, kick off their shoes and put away their outdoor walking gear. But the Paschal Lamb was different, the Jews had to eat it while on the ready. The actual Exodus didn’t happen until the next morning, but they were told to eat that lamb ready to go.
What’s the significance of these 3 objects, what do they teach us today?
In a 1986 Passover Letter, which was the year of my (Mendel’s) Bar-Mitzvah, the Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the belt, shoes and staff represent 3 types of preparedness – and the verse teaches us that eagerness, alacrity and urgency are required for all three.
BELT equals personal preparedness. Putting on that belt ties up the loose ends of long robes and cloaks. The Urban Dictionary says it means get ready for action. Dictionary.com says it means: prepare yourself for something requiring readiness, strength, or endurance. The FreeDictionary calls this mental preparedness to do something difficult. The Rebbe says that of the 3 objects, the belt is about preparing ourselves.
SHOES, especially the ancient sandal, are meant for the outdoors. This goes beyond personal preparation to preparing oneself for interaction with others and the world around us. As soon as we step outside of our homes, we hit foreign turf, putting on our shoes – physically, and spiritually, is preparing for that.
THE STAFF OR WALKING STICK aren’t for a walk around the block. The staff or walking stick is for a long trek or big hike. Most peope don’t need a walking stick if they are going from Dutch Tower to the Dining Hall or from a house in Great Neck to a corner store on Middle Neck Road. This walking stick represents preparedness for the long-term, vision and foresight & reach far down the road. Something far off, in the distance.
(In his letter the Rebbe actually explains the message of the walking stick to be preparedness for current seeingly out-of-reach spiritual opportunities, but in the context of college-age students I adapted to be long-term future, which many students may consider to be out of their reasonable reach right now).
Let’s see if you guys got this. Which of the three is about interaction with the outside world? (Shoes) Which is about personal preparedness? (the belt) and which is about long-term preparedness? (the staff). Ok great you got it.
Here’s an important life message from this Passover verse (read this week in Parshat Bo):
Its college and a lot of us are taking it a little easy, taking life in stride, worrying about one day at a time. YOLO, they say, and there will be plenty of time in the future to get things figured out. There’s some truth to that. No need to rush growing up. Life ain’t so easy after college, might as well enjoy it now.
But the Passover story teaches us we need to be ready. Yeh, you can play the party by ear, figure out summer plans later, take life as it comes, but with core values and our Judaism we can’t just wing it. Now is the time to start figuring that out. We can’t wait for marriage to figure out who we are deep inside. You are messing around if you don’t know that now before you date. That’s playing around with someone else’s heart.
So the belt tells us – be ready. Buckle up. Get your act together. Know who you are. Be the best you can be.
The message of the Shoes is – be ready for the world out there. Don’t get caught unawares. You can’t stay comfy in your little bubble and feel good about that. Know what it will feel like when you leave your comfort zone, be ready to take on that challenge. This is true of all types of external transitions. Think of culture shocks, religious challenges, maybe its leaving years of yeshiva and strong Jewish community to attend college for teh first time, or maybe its meeting and dealing with people who are very different than yourself, or what it might be like to wake up at 7am every morning for work after 4 years of never taking a morning class. etc etc. Put your shoes on now, even while inside. That way you’ll be ready when you are thrust outside. Putting on shoes is about going outside of ourselves and interacting with others.
The last thing is the staff. The long-term preparedness for the big trek, the long hike. This one is the biggest surprise. How do we ready ourselves for the long-term? or for things that are way beyond our reach? Should we? What happened to let’s cross that bridge when we get there? And hey, I’m too young to think long-term.
There’s no need to think or plan details now. Life plays too many tricks for us to have it all figured out. There’s a Yiddish expression: Man plans and G-d laughs. So its not so easy to have a long-term plan.
But we can and should have a long-term vision. When we make choices now at age 18 or 20, we ought to keep in mind what difference these choices will make in 5 or 10 years. Its frivolous and immature and irresponsible to think that “all that happens in college stays in college.” The choices we make today influence and form the person we become tomorrow.
The Belt tells us to get it together.
The Shoes tell us to be prepared for going outside.
The Staff says, the future is closer than you might think. Our choices today form who we will become tomorrow.