Aspire to Live Up to a Beautiful Ambition

To work and give to benefit others is spiritual, rabbi says

His relationship with his faith is central to everything he does. His fondness and regard for the Rebbe, the late Menachem Mendel Schneerson, spiritual leader of the Hasidic movement, equates to wonder, reverence and worship. Short in stature, Rabbi Shaya Tenenboim of the Chabad of the Emerald Coast in Destin is kind, gentle and peace loving. His energy and aura are soothing. He is a friend.

Recently, we got together and talked about Passover, a celebration that is among a number of Jewish exodus observances.

“In the Torah, there are countless mentions of the exodus,” Tenenboim said. “It is one of the foundations of the Jewish people. When God gave the Torah to the Jews at Mount Sinai, he introduced himself: ‘I am God, I am the one who took you out of Egypt.’ He does not say ‘I am the one who makes the sun rise and the rain fall and who created the world.’ He says, ‘I am the one who took you out of Egypt.’”

Jacob, his children and grandchildren, like starving modern-day refugees, left Canaan and traveled to Egypt, given the promise of food. In the course of a few hundred years, the family grew to become a nation.

In Egypt, the Jewish people were enslaved, tortured and prosecuted to an extent that has brought about comparisons to the Holocaust. Some 2 to 3 million Jews escaped Egypt in the 13th century BCE as a product of miracles, Tenenboim said.

The rabbi thinks of the exodus from Egypt as the birthday of the Jewish people.

Even Among Jews who may not practice their religion regularly, Passover is a singular event that is unfailingly observed. This year, Passover starts before sundown on Monday, April 22, and concludes after nightfall on April 30 in the United States. 

“All of the Jews who I know make a seder (a collection of symbolic foods) on Passover’s first night,” Tenenboim said. The Chabad of the Emerald Coast hosts a popular seder dinner open to the public.

“People who keep Judaism on a low flame, — when Passover comes, the soul awakens, families get together, people go out of their way to get kosher-for-Passover food. Of course, when it comes to Passover, people are going to have matzah; they are not going to have leavened food.”

For Tenenboim and millions of others worldwide, Passover is a spiritual event that emphasizes the relationship between God and man.

“God loves us unconditionally, but at the same time, he wants us to behave. He wants us to follow his way and not get lost in material life,” Tenenboim said. “Passover returns us to the original pure love, and we can start over.”

The rabbi explained what he termed a little bit of “wordplay” in connection with Passover.

“The word Egypt in Hebrew is Mizraim,” he said. “One of the commandments of the Torah is to remember the exodus every single day. The word mizraim in Hebrew means boundaries (literally, between the straits of the upper Nile). We should not think that God took us out of Egypt once and that is it.

“You have to exceed boundaries every single day. The material life may hold you back from God. God is unlimited, but in the material life, we are subject to limitations. We have to go out of Egypt, so to speak, every day.”

Doing so is part of a lifelong effort to continuously grow better in the eyes of God.

“Even if yesterday, you went out of yourself and elevated yourself to a higher level, today, go further,” Tenenboim said. “Grow closer to God. Become less selfish, less focused on material desires and more attuned to your purpose in life and your service to God and the community and the world.

“When you give to benefit others, that is spiritual.”

Such a beautiful sentiment. Such a beautiful ambition. In any language. Every day of the year.