Eli: Boker tov, Rebbe. This is starting to feel like a real journey. This boker thing, when we need to be able to make a cut with what was and get into what is now; shachar, being on a quest. And what we explored last time, pokeiach ivrim—the idea of not walking around with a skin/hide over our eyes, for us to see what’s right in front of us.
Rav Daniel: Yes, totally. We are being guided through a process and connected to our powers and abilities, while at the same time being connected to our Source. We’re being reminded of what we’re here for and have been empowered to be and do.
Eli: It’s like each berachah has a physical aspect of us that it relates to, but, at the same time, there’s this overlay you’re bringing out which reminds us of what those physical abilities are for. That’s what I meant when I said it’s like a journey … towards ourselves.
Rav Daniel: Beautifully put. Today we’re moving into “Matir assurim”—Blessed is Hashem Who releases the imprisoned—and it’s a great next step in the context of what you just said. This berachah is made for our ability to stretch, and that’s when it used to be said, when a person made his first stretch in the morning. Actually, let’s do that now! I really want to encourage people to do that in the morning. Now, feel how your energy wakes up! It makes a very big difference, you know! Give yourself a moment to experience the blood flow, the energy flow. It could probably cut down your caffeine intake by a good fifty percent!
But, listen. Since when are we imprisoned? Why not just bless Hashem for standing up straight? Clearly there’s an overlay here in our ability to stretch and not be confined. Because after you open your eyes, the question becomes: How bound up am I by my past? To what I’ve already committed myself, by the preconceptions and prejudices that I have? How much of a prisoner to my complaining, judgments, inability to listen to other people and see them for what they truly are?
Eli: Everything, just every single thing you’re saying to me right now, is just hitting me between the eyes, everything, every word picks up a different personal experience of what you’re saying, which is so powerful. I mean, who isn’t a prisoner this way?
Rav Daniel: In Hebrew, the word “matir”—to release—is related to “la’tur” which is something like the English tour—to move around and look at things. It’s about letting go and taking a moment before saying this berachah to also experience the sense that nothing holds me back, that I am created in the image of Hashem, and G-d, after all, is the most free reality that there is—infinite, unbound. We are meant to be creatures of this kind of absolute freedom and with which we imitate Hakadosh Baruch Hu with our creativity, with our openness, with our availability, with our ability to see things truly and be in our purpose. It’s probably the greatest power that we’ve been vested with, to be free and open, and also our greatest responsibility. We’re unbound by Him.
But, of course, the Torah says, “Lo taturu acharei eineichem—don’t go touring after your heart and eyes.” We have drives and passions, which can take us away from ourselves. When my matir assurim becomes “me on tour,” without commitments, nothing holding me back at all, but also alienated from my true self, feeling needy, empty, in need of someone to affirm me, to confirm me, needing to control others—about all those kinds of things Hashem says, ‘Hold on there! Be careful not to become a tourist of life. Connect to mitzvah, connect to your deep self, connect to Me!’
Beautifully, the Midrash calls the Ark of the Covenant the “tayar ha’gadol”—the great tour guide (Bamidbar Rabbah 19:20) because it guided us through the desert. But, get this: the Ark holds the Torah—also (at least in its sound) the tar—guiding us on the great tour of life and freeing us from what would get in the way of being true.
So, it is a journey, Eli. And I really pray for everyone that they’re blessed with releasing themselves from whatever holds them back from being the most that they can be, whether it’s negative thoughts of judgment, whether it’s people in their environment who are sending negative thoughts about themselves and negative impressions, that they’ll be able to open themselves up in a way that Hashem’s goodness and freedom flows through them, and releases them all from prison. Baruch matir assurim!
Eli: Wow, OK! We’re in! So, everybody—one, two, three … stretch!
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