The Night of Conscious Watching
Egypt [Mitzrayim – the dual form], Night Before Leaving
What we do the night before –
knowing we are leaving by morning.
The night before
we paused in our preparations
leil shimurim
the night of conscious watching
used only here
in this verse
twice:
It was at the end of four hundred and thirty years,
and it was on that very day
that all the legions of God
left the land of Egypt.
It is a night of conscious watching
for God to take them out of the land of Mitzrayim
this was the night for God
a conscious watching for all the children of Israel
for their generations. [Exodus 12: 41 – 42]
On Shabbat HaGadol one year
the Great Sabbath before Passover
it was disclosed to me
this night conscious watching
what we know from the verse –
A conscious watching
reciprocal [dual]
God for us, we for God –
a spiritual intimacy
something left undone, done.
That from the verse.
From the past –
Every year just before Passover,
I ask myself
who am I waiting for?
For what?
What undone?
Who speaks from the past?
Tell me.
jsg