CHOOSE TO SHINE

James Deering lived 100 years ago. His father started the Deering Harvester Company, which eventually became International Harvester. He is best remembered for the winter vacation mansion he had built, called Vizcaya.  1100 workers took three years to construct the mansion and the surrounding gardens. The property is filled with priceless antiques, statues, and every luxury known at that time. He even had the first automatically switched telephone ever installed in the entire Dade County.  He employed a staff of 30 people to maintain the grounds and service the home.  The surrounding gardens remain a nature preserve to this day, with many species of trees not found in other places. The property sits on the shoreline 10 minutes away from downtown Miami yet is a quiet respite from the burgeoning city life nearby.

James never married. He remained a bachelor, socialite, and philanthropist all his days. He passed at sea aboard the SS City of Paris in 1925, only three years after Vizcaya was completed. He was 65 years old.  Because he had no children, Deering left Vizcaya to his half-brother Charles, who passed two years later. It was then inherited by his two nieces, who passed it to their grandchildren. Due to the tremendous costs of upkeep and the constant repairs required, the family was forced to sell the property to the county for one million dollars, a fraction of its worth. It is now a tourist site.

I recently visited the Vizcaya estate. There was so much to take in and appreciate, from the intricate craftsmanship to the priceless pieces throughout the house. The gardens were impressive, as was the view of the coastline from the back of the house. As I took in the overwhelming beauty, I could not help but think that I would never be this affluent. I then started to question if I would even want to live that life, even if I could.  Despite all the glitz and glamor, James Deering did not have the luxuries that you and I take for granted today.  Besides, it seems like such a waste that he was only able to enjoy it for a few winters. Is that the real purpose of life?  Spend untold amounts of money to create a beautiful retreat, invest your time and energy into making something magnificent, only enjoy it briefly, then have no direct heirs to whom you can even pass it on? Thanks to several hurricanes over the last century, many of the statues have become pockmarked shadows of their original glory. Even now with all the restoration efforts, some parts of it look like Roman ruins. Is this why people toil so hard during their brief stays on this earth?

When Hashem redeemed us from the depths of slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt, he lifted us up and made us into a nation, for the purpose of serving Him. As noted in the Haggadah, we would still be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt if Hashem had not redeemed us.  Should we take that at face value, or might there be a hidden meaning?

Egypt was the center of the known world at that time.  Yosef had risen to power and was responsible to feed the entire world with the storehouses of grain that he had prepared.  The rest of the planet was starving. All the wealth known to man was funneled into Egypt as the rest of the world came to pay for food to survive.  Egypt was therefore the richest nation on the planet.  Could this be a metaphor for all things physical? When Hashem redeemed us from the bondage of Egypt and made us into the Jewish Nation by giving us His commandments, we traded the chains of physical desires and pursuits for the opportunity to invest in spiritual matters. 

Hashem gave us commandments so we could earn our reward in the everlasting World to Come. The empires people may build during their lifetimes in this world crumble and fall. The only lasting value is the reward we earn by continuing to improve ourselves according to the tenets in the Torah. Let this transform your Passover holiday.