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Thought for the Day: First Shabbos of Retirement vs. First Day of Retirement

Baruch HaShem, I merited being able to begin my retirement this year. After just over a half century in the workforce, my employment was terminated as of Friday, April 19, 2024. That "just happened" to be the Friday before Pesach this year. זמן חירותנו/the season of our freedom took on a whole new meaning to me. I had a question, though: Was Shabbos or Monday the first day of my retirement? Certainly, my employment ended on Friday. Just for grins, I tried checking my work email on Sunday and was greeted with "this account has been locked" message. Still, I never went to work on Shabbos (in fact, they were very accommodating about my leaving early on Friday afternoons -- especially during the winter). That being the case, this Shabbos was not materially different than any other Shabbos. Monday, on the other hand, was the first day that I didn't go into work; so perhaps that was the first day of my retirement.

Let's make this about a bigger issue. We have a mitzvah every single day to remember the exodus from Mitzrayim. Every day; specifically during the day because we walked out of Mitzrayim during the day. This mitzvah is accomplished with a simple statement in recognition of the fact that we left Mitzrayim. (There is a rabbinic requirement to also remember the exodus at night; see the Hagadah and Shulchan Aruch for details.) There is also a mitzvah to relate the chain of events that led up to the redemption of our slavery to Paroh. Not just relate the events, but delve into every detail; the more the better. That obligation -- סיפור יציאת מצרים -- is annual and specifically at night; it must be at night, in fact. Why are there two separate mitzvos? Why is one at night and one during the day? Why is one daily and one annually? Why is one accomplished with a simple statement, while the other needs wine, matzah, bitter herbs, and songs?

There is a lot to unpack there, but the basic and fundamental difference comes down to the fact that there were two enslavements from which we were redeemed: שעבוד הגוף/physical bondage and שעבוד הנפש/spiritual bondage. The physical bondage ended when we actually walked out of Mitzrayim -- during the day. The body is temporal; it lives bound by time and has very little memory. Every day we need to remind our bodies that we are no longer slaves to Paroh in Mitzrayim. It needs daily affirmation because of the body's short memory. It needs to be concise and to the point because of the body's short attention span. The soul, though, is eternal. That enslavement ended that night in Miztrayim when we smeared our doorposts with the blood of their god and roasted their god and made a banquet of eating their god. We assaulted their senses with our profound rejection any connection to them or their beliefs. The wells of spiritual potential that fueled our redemption open annually and we grab the opportunity to drink deeply from those wells into the depths of our souls.

So back to my question: was Shabbos or Monday the first day of my retirement? The answer is: yes. Monday was certainly the first day that I didn't have to go to work. I certainly did different things. I will certainly have a different schedule. That Shabbos, though, was so serene; not a single thought of what still needed to be done at the office. As I told an ex-colleague: For the last 50 years I had to worry about how much time off I had and what was piling up at work. Now I just have to worry about how much time I have left and how much more I want to accomplish!
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