Truth Through Questions

This week is Passover for the Jewish people. All over the world, Jews will be sitting at a seder table with their family and friends and asking the four questions…

The question that came to my mind is…Why do we ask questions at all? Why don’t we just read the Haggadah, the traditional book of the order of the seder, say the prayers and tell the story of Passover? Maybe the purpose of Passover is not only to tell the story or understand the holiday’s meaning, but the actual act of asking the questions. This way of thinking is the opposite of what we have always believed. The questions in the Haggadah do not only have to be understood in the literal form, but asked in order to contemplate the answers and to be a pathway for the truth. I believe this also applies to the Torah. The Torah is a coded guidebook that was written for the Jewish people not to be told the answers, but to find the truth within ourselves by asking the questions. Is it possible that the higher power in the universe wants us to dig deep into our own souls and find the answers to the questions that are posed to us on Passover and every day of our lives? By contemplating and thinking of our own answers in regards to ourselves, we have the ability to grow and transform, lift our spiritual selves and create holiness. If we only gain knowledge by what others tell us… it is knowledge for knowledge sake. It has no purpose. Knowledge only has purpose when we create an opportunity to grow from it. Through asking questions and contemplating our own answers, we can understand the truth within ourselves.

I have some questions for you that I have asked myself. They are not questions about the Passover holiday rituals, but about the core of what the holiday represents; the feeling of slavery within ourselves which is universal for all human beings. Our logical response today is….we don’t think of ourselves as slaves at all! We feel free in our lives, living in America, having freedom of religion, having freedom to work and play in the way that we choose, but we need to ask ourselves a deeper question: are we in bondage in our own souls? How do we free ourselves form the worries, concerns and frustrations of everyday life? How do we make decisions that have positive outcomes all the time? How do we find peace within hearts and in our relationships with each other?

Here are some questions that I will be writing about in my future blog. They are for you to think about, if you choose. They are questions about our inner selves and our relationships with others, especially with our own family members.

· Are we blind to our own issues? Do we need guides to help us see the truth about ourselves?

· Are our spouse’s “mirrors” of our own life lessons? When we become angry with their actions or behaviors, can we see what we need to change about ourselves…or do we always think that “if they would only change the way he/she is doing that…it would be fine?

· How can our children be so much like us, and the opposite of us as well? How are some of our children more like us and the other ones more like our spouse? Is it all genetics? What life lessons are they learning from us, and what are we learning from them?

· Why are there various expectations put on us by our parents in regard to birth order or gender? Why can’t relationships be more balanced between the members in our family?

· Do we act out of fear or love within our relationships? Do we try to make others happy, for example, because we are afraid that they won’t love us if we don’t? Or do we act out of a place of mutual happiness between each other and take actions that benefit both people involved?

· Are we afraid of change? Are we afraid of our own power? Are we afraid of loss? Are we afraid of love?

For those of you that celebrate Passover…have a wonderful and thought provoking seder!

Andrea