Are we celebrating too soon?

Rabbi Fishel Zaklos

There’s a classic Jewish joke about when a censor taker went to the Goldstein house.

“Does Louis Goldstein live here?” he asked.

“No,” replied Goldstein.

“Well, then, what is your name?”

“Louis Goldstein.”

“Wait a minute, didn’t you just tell me that Goldstein doesn’t live here?”

“Ach,” said Goldstein. “You call this living?”

I’ve been thinking about Louis. I’ve also been thinking, why do we have a huge holiday that only celebrates the very beginning of an extremely long journey?

Passover is all about the Jews leaving Egypt, and the big miracles G-d made for our ancestors to escape that slavery. But the whole point in leaving Egypt was to get to and settle the Land of Israel and, ultimately, build the Holy Temple. When the Jews left Egypt, as miraculous as it was, they still had a very long journey ahead. They knew they were about to trek across the desert with their children and elderly, face a lack of food and water as well as wild animals, snakes and attacks from multiple enemies. When they’d finally arrive in Israel, they’d have to work to settle each city and town while fighting off frequent invaders — and only then would they start to build the temple.

If you’re counting, that’s a 487-year journey from the time they left Egypt until the completion of the first temple by King Solomon. Forty of those years were spent wandering the desert, the next 436 had the Jewish people busy settling the land and dealing with the invader problem, until King David finally secured things enough for King Solomon to start building. Is it not too soon to celebrate when they barely started year one?

Let’s imagine for a moment how overwhelming it must have been for the Jews who left Egypt, knowing what was ahead of them. All they’d known until then was slavery in Egypt and, while slavery is no fun, at least it was familiar and predictable. Moses was about to lead them into what must’ve felt like a never-ending journey.

But the Jewish people took that first step and, every year for 3,335 years, we’ve been celebrating that start with the very elaborate holiday of Passover.

Because Passover isn’t about the construction of the temple; it’s about the journey towards it. Passover celebrates that first step out of slavery and into freedom, then all the little steps along the way. It’s a powerful perspective on life; an attitude that changes everything.

We’re all on a journey for our whole life. We have many goals we’re trying to achieve, whether it’s starting a family, growing a successful business or becoming a better person — and these things take time. If we push off happiness until we finally make it to the end, we’d all be like Louis Goldstein who never gets to enjoy what he has in life because he’s too busy thinking it could be better.

Passover teaches us to stop and celebrate every little milestone. Celebrate the day you decided to break free of an old habit. Celebrate the day you did it just a little less than before. Celebrate when you set out on a new job. Celebrate each new thing you learn and every nice conversation along the way. Freedom is dancing between the raindrops and enjoying the journey you chose to set out on.

And remember, journeys have ups and downs. Life wasn’t all roses and peaches in the desert; the Jewish nation suffered through many low points. Just as we learn to celebrate the highs, we learn to have patience with ourselves and forgive the more difficult moments as we continue facing forward, one step at a time.

Today, when our world feels dominated by adversarial forces, life's journey may feel particularly overwhelming. And, while we need to address these issues, they need not prevent us from remembering how far we've come as a nation. We have thriving Jewish communities and can step foot on the holy soil of Israel after a (relatively) short plane ride (just ask one of our Naples family members who went on the Israel trip with us last month). We have so much to celebrate!

This Passover, may we all learn to celebrate our journeys and nd happiness in every step along the way.

Rabbi Zaklos Fishel serves at Chabad Jewish Center of Naples.