Guest post from MarGavriel: The End of Pesach

The Zohar, Beshallah 60a, tells that when the Israelites were at the Yam Suf, they saw tremendously clear visions of God's presence. This is a theme which we find already in medrashim, which state that the statement זה אלי ואנוהו implies being able to point to a visual manifestation, and say "this!". In fact, there are even hints of this in the biblical text itself, which states וירא ישראל ... ויאמינו: "Then Israel saw ... and they believed."

The Zohar says that the Israelites did not want to leave the Yam Suf: ויסע משה את ישראל מים סוף -- "Moses forced Israel to leave the Yam Suf". Here, too, we find this idea already in medrashim. In the medrashim, the Israelites wanted to stay because of all the jewels and gold and silver, the ביזת הים, which had been washed up in the sea. They wanted to pick up cash from the ground. On the other hand, the Zohar says that they wanted to stay because of the spiritual experience of clear vision, אסתכלותא.

The Zohar continues: God said to Moses: "Tell them to move on." Moses told them to move on, but they refused to leave. So God said: "I must remove זיו יקרי, the sheen of my glory, from the sea, so that there will be nothing left here for which the Israelites will want to stay." He removed His glory, and moved it to the wilderness, where אתגלי ולא אתגלי, He was revealed, yet not revealed.

So Moses told the Israelites: "God's glory has left the sea; it is time to move on." Yet still, they did not want to move on, for this was the place where they had had such clear vision, and they wanted to savor the place.

So Moses pointed to the wilderness, and said: "Look -- see the cloud there? God is there now. He may not be revealed in such a clear way, for אתגלי ולא אתגלי, but that is where He is."

And finally, they moved on to the wilderness. And what are the next words in the verse? ויצאו אל מדבר שור -- "they went to the Wilderness of Shur." What is Shur? The Zohar explains: מאי שור? אסתכלותא. The word "shur" in Hebrew, as a verb, means "seeing". For here, too, they saw visions of God, albeit less clearly.

So -- here is my take on this:

For a whole week, we have had Pesah. We had sedarim and rituals at the beginning, and Hallel and leyning. Then we had hol ha-mo'ed, with its restrictions on melakha and prohibition of hametz, and we had Shir Hashirim (on Shabbes for Ashkenazim, on other days for other groups). We have had many piyyutim, and festive meals. Finally, on the seventh day, we have read the story of the splitting of the sea, and read the Song.

The song is over, but we still don't want to leave. We have had such a good Yom Tov. And in fact, in the diaspora, even after the Song, we still stay at the Sea another day. We don't want to leave.

But it's over. God isn't here any more. If we continue eating matza and avoiding hametz after the week is over, we accomplish nothing.

So, as Moses tells the people in the passage in the Zohar -- look, beyond Pesah, into the plain weekdays of Aumerzeit. There, we do not have such direct religious obligations, and אתגלי ולא אתגלי -- God is revealed, yet concealed. Revealed, but not revealed. Nonetheless, do not be scared to move on -- for now, God is there. The cloud is in the wilderness. It is time to leave the Sea.