"It Ain't Over Till the Niggunim Are Sung"

OK, so we’ve been liberated from our Egypt. Great. What now? So let's back up a drop. If the first days of Passover are about being set free, then the energy is all hyper-focused on being in a space of gratitude, basking in the joyous realization that we are ultimately not alone.

More often than not, the mere reminder of being remembered and cared for supersedes the care itself. The temptation to remain in the space of appreciation, however, is the oldest trap known to man, and the wiliest, dressed up as it is in the cloak of doing the right thing. But gratitude, overdone, results only in burnt freedom.

The unnatural extension of appreciation couched in the name of decency is merely good old-fashioned fear-based procrastination in disguise. So what now, you ask? Simple. The second days of Passover challenge us to rise up courageously to the occasion of our freedom. The Haggadah is done. G-d has been dutifully thanked. Now it's on us to step outside the shadow of the Redeemer and begin actually living in that newfound redemption.

The optimizing of freedom requires a deep-seated commitment to the practice of freedom. If we were carried out of slavery during the first days of Pesach, then on the seventh day we are asked to begin standing on our own two feet. Though we will encounter unexpected obstacles along the journey we undertake towards the land of emotional freedom, we are reminded that being asked to stand alone is not the abandonment that it can feel like. To the contrary, the only thing more uplifting than belief is being believed in.

The seventh day carries the ironic knowledge that only the bold jump forth into the unknown activates the reassurance of the net that will always be there to catch us when we need to be caught. The second days hold a more mature and demanding experience of freedom, wherein the ironic promise of freedom and safety are extended only to those who overcome the terror of the raging seas, and wade forth courageously into the uncertainty that dots the landscape of our newest horizons.