Judaism Does Nothing for Me
Its Your Mindset, Stupid!
In this week's Biblical portion, Bo, the Torah speaks about the redemption of the Jews from their enslavement in Egypt.
The Torah tells us that the Jews were given a commandment to bring the Paschal sacrifice thanking G‑d for redeeming them. The Paschal sacrifice was to be a sheep, an animal which the Egyptians considered a god.
G‑d commanded the Jews to bring the sheep into their homes four days before they were to bring the sacrifice.
Why was this lengthy "storage" necessary?.
Though commentaries give many explanations, I would like to focus on one in particular.
The Jews needed four days days to change their mindset. They needed to come to terms with the fact that they would have to slaughter what the Egyptians considered their deity. It would take them four days to acclimate themselves to their public condemnation of idolatry and disassociate themselves from their past.
The lesson that this four day preparation teaches us is powerful. Many times people jump into the spiritual realm without any preparation and then state that spirituality is "worthless" because they didn't feel anything.
For example, they keep a Shabbat or celebrate a holiday and say "It did nothing for me" or "It did not inspire me."
However, the Torah is telling us that in order to appreciate the holiness in forms of Shabbat, Kashrut, Mikveh etc., it is best to first change our mindset and then live the practice. Only with preparation can we appreciate the full impact of the experience.