A Woman Important to My Heart (WIMP) said to me Motzei Shabbat that making her kitchen kosher felt similar to the endeavour of Pesach. We're told that the removal of chometz from one's house at Pesach is symbolic of removing one's ego. Our enslavement meant we had no autonomy, and were completely subject to the will of others. We clean to remove our ego, to remember that we were taken with "outstretched arm" from Egypt. There's more than just activity akin to with koshering one's new kitchen? This WIMP suggests that really, its "not meant to be this hard. You're not supposed to clean and broil and scrape and scrub and shelp on your own. When you set up your house its supposed to be with someone else. Your partner."
Except I think she's wrong. I think to rely on the end-result of being partnered as necessary to conduct one's mitzvaot is weakening, and terribly, terribly sad. Just because you are still One and not Two-in-One, doesn't mean that your efforts, love, attention, intention are worth any less to Hashem. If anything, then I think this is our challenge. Sure, we are meant to build a Beit Neeman, but at the same time, we are also intended to struggle. Struggling as a single, young Jewess today does not, thank G-d, mean wondering if you will have something for supper, if you have a clean skirt to wear, or even if you will see your brother again in your lifetime. It means that the struggle is rather, to be exactly that: a young, female, SINGLE, Jewish woman. This is our challenge my friends. Not the physical struggle of survival, but the reimagining of sacred space and incumbent duties as ours. Let's make Shabbat for each other. Buy those beautiful candlesticks before your marriage. Even before you go on a date. Love G-d and love yourself as his representative. Because while we're busy making our faith real, and loving it, the end result will be manifest.
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