In this morning’s Haftarah, the prophet Ezekiel finds himself in a valley filled with dry bones. At God’s direction, Ezekiel prophesies and the bones come together, forming skeletons which are then covered with muscles and skin, and animated by breath provided through God’s command. Ezekiel learns that the bones are a symbol of the people Israel, desiccated by hopelessness; his vision stands as an assurance that Israel will be restored.
This magnificent spectacle of rebuilding and reanimation is a two step process. In the first prophecy, Ezekiel is to bring about the reformation of the bones into human forms, but these forms are still lying lifeless on the floor of the valley. Only when the second stage of the prophecy results in breath being breathed into the forms do the dead come to life and stand up.
This passage teaches us an important lesson about our own acts of creation. Every act of creation requires actualization. Whether we are writing a book, designing a curriculum, preparing a legal case, or putting together furniture from Ikea, we need to plan out the acts needed to bring our project to fruition. While God creates and recreates through a speech act, our own creative acts often involve physical labor, and at the very least they require hard work. But without inspiration or animation, no amount of work can produce a living, breathing thing. Whether the creative spark comes at the end, as it does in Ezekiel’s vision, or at the beginning, it must be present. Otherwise our "creations" have form and substance but no spirit; they may look real, but they cannot "come to life and stand" as did the multitude revived by Ezekiel.
Our ancestors left servitude in Egypt for the rigors of the wilderness and the challenge of building a new life in Eretz Yisrael. What then was the difference between the former task and the latter? In Egypt, the Israelites built store cities for Pharaoh, but no part of their spirit animated those buildings. The labor may have been productive from Pharaoh’s point of view, but it was deadening; it offered no creative outlet or joy to those who participated in it. In contrast, the creation of the mishkan and the building of a new life offered the Israelites an opportunity to give of themselves and infuse their creations with their energy and spirit. The work was the work of "everyone whose spirit moved him/her" and showcased their wisdom and abilities.
As Pesach draws to a close and we turn our attention to our own work, may we always remember that our efforts must not only be planned and executed; they must be animated with the breath of our own life, our creativity, our energy and our spirit. Such work reflects not only our hopes but the promise of our Haftarah, that even in times of struggle and hopelessness, we experience the promise of renewal.
Moadim L’Simha and Shabbat Shalom.