The Torah mandates that we observe the Seventh day of Pesach as a holiday. Thus, for us in the Diaspora, we observe the last two days of Pesach on Saturday and Sunday. The first and last days of Pesach serve as bookends to the freedom of the Jews from the Egyptians.
The beginning of Pesach marks the actual exodus of the Jews from Egypt, while the last days mark the miraculous event of the splitting of the Red Sea and the demise of the Egyptian army which ended the threat and intimidation of the Jews.
On Shabbos the portion of the Torah describing the events of the splitting of the Red sea and the song that Moshe and the Jews sang is read.
The Haftorah read on Shabbos is taken from the Book of Ezekiel, which describes how G-d communicated with Ezekiel and empowered him to resurrect the dead from a field where a massive amount of human dry bones lay.
Our Sages tell us that many years before Moshe led the Jews out of Egypt about 200,000 Jews, primarily from the tribe of Ephraim, escaped from Egypt under a false leader. When they entered the land of the Philistines, en route to Israel, the Philistines attacked them and killed them all. The carnage of this war was still evident at the time the Jews left Egypt and therefore G-d rerouted the Jews from the direct path to Israel through the land of the Philistines, out of concern that the Jews, upon seeing the demise of their brethren, would return to Egypt.
The dry bones that Ezekiel resurrected were the remains of those early escapees from Egypt. Besides this connection to the Exodus event, the subject of resurrection of the dead has another association with Pesach, for our Sages tell us that the eventual resurrection of the dead will occur Pesach time.
It is interesting to note that this Haftorah is reserved for the Shabbos that occurs during Pesach. Shabbos is a day when one can experience the serenity of a touch of the World to Come, which will arrive when the dead are resurrected.
Ezekiel states, “They said, ‘Our bones have dried and our hope is lost. We are doomed.’” The Talmud derives from this verse that these escapees denied the resurrection of the dead for they had lost their hope.
Rabbi Avrohom Schorr says that we see from this, that losing hope is tied to not believing in the resurrection. A basic ingredient in life and one’s existence, is through the hope and optimism that he has a future and there will be salvation and redemption.
In the Book of Isaiah, he prophesizes, “Wake up and rejoice those interred in the ground.” Wake up, means that the dead are merely sleeping. This means that a Jew never gives up hope, for our approach to death is that our loved ones are gone only temporarily – as if they are asleep – to awaken at the time G-d deems right.
The reaffirmation of the resurrection of the dead is so important that in each of our daily Amidah prayers, we mention, reflect and recite a blessing on G-d’s power to resurrect the dead. The Vilna Gaon o.b.m. points out that in the blessing which our great sages composed, is the term, “Those ‘sleeping’ in the earth.” For death, in the mind of a Jew is only a temporary separation.
Rabbi Schorr surmises; we can take inspiration from this concept and apply it to our lives and outlook towards others. If the actual dead are considered merely sleeping and not lost forever, then certainly one who is spiritually lethargic and may even consider himself the Rasha of the Ma Nishtana, because of the deadened feelings they have toward spirituality, the fact that they are physically alive is enough to encourage and support them that there is hope to resurrect and rekindle feelings of spirituality towards the Almighty, His Torah, their family and nation!
The Zohar – our Kaballa – teaches us, that the Matzah we eat over the course of Pesach – is spiritually charged with the power to bring blessing and healing!
