The Moshiach In You

(Hi all! I'm Chaya, Miriam's sister guest blogging today.)

We are commanded to leave Egypt every day.

Although the Exodus from Egypt occured thousand of years ago, we find that "Egypt" can still exist within us. The Pharoah of today lusts to keep us his slaves through depression, despair, apathy, selfishness, and other negative character traits.

When we succomb to this foreign rule, our joy is stifled, and we cannot even hope for a better tomorrow. We all know that in life, there are hardships that can really crush us, seemingly too difficult to overcome. If, however, we find the strength to fight, we not only escape to freedom, but we become the agents to help others escape as well.

Moshe, son of Amram, dared to defy his Egypt. Born with a speech impediment and raised in Pharoah's palace, he witnessed the injustice done to his people. How easy it would have been to remain silent and hidden! But no. Moshe mustered tremendous amount of courage to return to his birthplace and demand the Jews' freedom.

And because of his humility and courage, he became Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest Prophet that ever was.

And his holy boldness infused the Jews with the energetic boost they needed to leave their Egypts. He was their Moshiach/Messiah.

After leaving Egypt, the Jews recieved the Torah at Mount Sinai and became their own nation. Our sages teach us that the Jewish nation was like a newborn with a lot of growing up to do. They wandered 40 years in the wilderness, refining their character traits until they were worthy of entering Israel.

Not easy. Even as they stood at the borders of the Holy Land, they succombed to lack of faith in G-d and spiraled into negativity. They complained that they would perish in this new land and desired to RETURN TO EGYPT!

Could it be that their immaturity and negativity prevented them from being a "Moshaich" to another?

Moshe Rabbeinu erred at the Waters of Merivah when he became angry at the Jewish people when they complained of thirst. They had complained one too many times. But, Hashem judges the Tzaddikim at a higher standard and therefore Moshe was denied entrance to Israel.

But what if the Jews had put aside their own needs and focused their attention on Moshe. What if they had banded together and demanded Hashem to let Moshe enter? What if they had tried to negotiate? Our Sages say there is strength in numbers, and that Hashem delights when His children work together. Could the Jewish people have been Moshe's Moshiach?? I believe YES.

This is why we are commanded to leave Egypt every day. To go to those places that stretches us out of our "speech impediments" and out of our selfish-ness so we can help others. We need each other so much. We are the keys to each others' salvation!! We can emulate Moshe Rabbeinu, gathering courage, energy, and G-'dly power to help others break free from their bondage.

Then the Exodus from Egypt occurs again. Perhaps we will not see it with our physical eyes. But spiritually, it is like a domino effect, one soul effecting the other, one arousing the other until the Final and Ultimate Moshiach will arise from his place.

G-d bless!

Passover is Coming

I dedicate this video to Roslyn Holcomb, author; and her new baby, God willing. Her latest book will be "delivered" on April 5th! Please check out her blog.

Day of the Splitting Sea

Its the last day of the holiday of Passover coming up. I'm so sad for it to go.

In a way it was loads of fun. The cleaning was not as hard -mostly because we had just moved, so there wasn't accumulated pockets to search through in the house. Each year we buy just a little more (permanent) things for Passover; I don't really like using those one-time use, plastic plates, cups, etc. We went to a bar-b-que, it was so American, the kids all tossed a football around --I haven't seen that in YEARS lol!

In a way it was hard. My heart was still hurting for the Christian Nigerians which no one seemed to care about who got slaughtered a few weeks ago. I couldn't even talk about it to anyone and the ones who were willing to hear me, didn't even know what happened.

I don't like getting the news.

Anyway, with Passover practically done (we have one more day of celebration. This is the celebration of the day the sea split. Woohoo! big miracle.) Now is the time of divestment. Of rectifications. I wrote alot about that last year and may repost it for this year.

I have what to write about but its all jumbled in my head at the moment. All the letters are begging to be the first ones out and I have to get them to calm down and come out one by one.

Passover Video

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Passover with Obama, Deserving the Split Sea

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According to Haartz Online newspaper, and other media reports, Obama is the first to have a seder (Passover) meal at the white house!

I wonder if Michelle Obama's cousin, Rabbi Funnye was there...?

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Yesterday was the celebration and commemoration of the parting of the sea. The Loan.

When it was time to save the Hebrew slaves, they were not worthy. But if nothing was done that would have spelled the end. So, God gave them a loan. No, not one of those sub-prime loans, but a loan none the less. With a great outstretched hand the Almighty parted the sea to allow the Hebrews to escape.

There are many times we get "gifts" from above, things we sense we don't deserve but we get them anyway. Those are usually loans. Eventually comes pay back times.

We can unfortunately see the lack of merit in this case, by the way the newly freed Hebrews complained left and right all the way to Israel. Slowly slowly they were building within themselves the vessels to truly understand what God had done for them, how indebt they are, and what a beautiful thing it all is.

Its great to take the time to reflect at all the great things we got. Great things that fell on our lap. Great people who came into our lives and gave us purpose, shape, love, joy. All these types of gifts asks that we grow into them.

Lets take a look at the recent gifts that BW have received of late. Lets build vessels to secure them.

(1) The knowledge that NAACP and CRIC are not our friend and we must stop sending them money.
That is a gift and a visible step upwards. Its a gift because our eyes have been made opened so that we don't foolish throw our money to the wrong organizations. From what I'm hearing many BW have realized they ought to stop funding such charitable organizations (especially since they have a going pretense that they are out to serve ALL BF).

However, charity is good. "Charity saves from death" as the proverb goes. Charity also mitigates alot of (heavenly) cases -where someone did wrong, charity smooths things out. Its great that BW have stopped giving charity to the wrong organization, but I think it would be wise to funnel the charity to a more appropriate group rather than not give at all.

If one is at a lost as to where to send it, I'll be glad to use it LOl! Just kidding, but seriously, it would be sad to loose the merit of giving charity just because we have been giving to the wrong people. Even misplaced charity has a merit (the giver receives undeserved merits). But this is a step upward because no longer are we driving on undeserved merits (and thus receiving random undeserved goods), we can now channel our charity in more precise ways. (Organizations like Al Sharpton's are actually chasing after rapists and criminals to defend them. Do you really want your money going there?).

(2) So many self empowering blogs are out there to help BW.
Since I've discovered blogosphere, there have been so many blogs popping up with the express mission of self empowering BW and hoping that they make better decisions, get better results in their lives, etc.

The sound message to truly learn from these blogs is to not substitute one "leader" for another. There is a salad bowl of good advice out there. Each one should be weighed while at the same time the messenger herself or himself should be looked at to see where and why the message is coming from where and why its coming from. If we hear the good news and instantly follow them blindly, in no time -strictly because they are human- if the time should ever come that they become corrupt or arrogant or greedy or whatever, we would have entrapped ourselves again by following a leader blindly.

(3) The president and first lady of the United States of America are black.
Okay okay, Mr. President is part black African. But the fact that this couple and their children on in such a visible spot, is probably going to make many take another, and closer, look at African Americans.

(One reason I love going for walks with a baby is because I look at the whole world all over again with new eyes! So, also, those who have never done so before, just may begin to wonder how does Obama view the situation in Kenya, Congo, etc. How does he does he manoever through the covert racism in America? The overt racism in America? How come AA are still around? How have they coped?)

This is an opportunity to create and make ties with groups we haven't dealt with yet. Only recently, at Black African Woman's Villager blog, the Brazillian President is quoted from an article:

The president, white and bearded, said: "I am not acquainted with any black bankers. This is a crisis that was caused by people, white with blue eyes. Before the crisis they looked like they knew everything about economics.

"Now they have demonstrated they don't know anything about economics."

Mirror Newspaper (hat tip =Grata)

Personally, that seemed a bit raw to me. Like someone trying too hard to get brownie points from Prez. Obama. But the point is many may test the waters and see perhaps a relationship can be forged with this group rather than shun them as so many propagandas suggest.

There are many more gifts to say Hallelukah for! Many in our personal lives and in our collective lives. Let us work at building the proper vessels in ourselvs -having the proper attitude, the proper degree of character (not too arrogant, not too insecure and self conscious -but justly confident with a dash of chutzpah!) to contain the gift that God has given us and to use them wisely!

This is not to say that these gifts are undeserved! I really don't know, but its always good to build and improve.

Dust is not Chometz

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This is just a note. There is just six weeks to Passover and I don't want to go crazy cleaning my house ridding it of yeast ingrediented food and floured items (crackers, cookies, cheerios, etc). All those things are called chometz. Some people can go crazy with the cleaning and feel the need to rid the house of all dirt as well. While that is always a good thing, I just don't want to forget the whole purpose and stress myself out if the place is not meticulously clean.

Therefore, just like last year, I want to divide the house into 6 parts, one for each week. I clean it and check to make sure there are no little pieces of cheerios, bread, or whatever the kids brought in, then close it off of food. No food allowed in the cleaned out rooms. (I also use this opportunity to throw out old things that are just taking up space in the closets and cabinets and wipe them down). The purpose is to cleans the house -and self- of leavening substance like yeast, ego, false pride, etc.