Passover is all about preparation. It is brought down in the Shulchan Aruch that we are supposed to start learning the laws of Passover a month before it starts. That means we are already moved on to Passover before we finish Purim. And then we get to this Shabbat, Shabbat HaGadol. Traditionally this is one of the two Shabbatot where Rabbis would speak to their congregation. On Shabbat Teshuva preparing for Yom Kippur. And on Shabbat HaGadol preparing us for Passover which is next week. And of course we have all of cleaning, kashering, and cooking.

This stands in juxtaposition to Passover being the Festival of Maztot. When it came time to leave Egypt we did not have enough time to bake bread so we ate and now still eat Matzah. The promise was made to Avraham many generations earlier that they would eventually get out of Egypt. Moshe himself told them that they were going to get out. Why did they not prepare and make amazing bagguetts for their travel?

At some level the Matzot are a symbol of their lack of faith that their promised exodus would actually happen. On one level of many levels of preparation for Passover are tikkun- fixing this flaw of our past. We did not prepare for the exodus appropriately and we are forever afflicted by this bread of affliction to remind us to prepare.

But this is not the only story of preparation connected to our exodus story. There after Kriyat Yam Sof, the miracle of the the division of sea, and after Moshe’s song in response to this event we have Miriam’s song. There we read:

Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, picked up a hand-drum, and all the women went out after her in dance with hand-drums. And Miriam chanted for them:
Sing to GOD, who has triumphed gloriously;
Horse and driver have been hurled into the sea. (Exodus 15:20-21)

What is the story with these hand-drums? Many people know Debbie Friedman’s catchie Miriam’s Song. She sings:

And the women dancing with their timbrels
Followed Miriam as she sang her song
Sing a song to the One whom we’ve exalted.
Miriam and the women danced and danced
the whole night long.

So first of all, a timbrel is a hand-drum. Clearly it is a percussion instrument that would help create a rhythm to which the women could dance. Of course it makes sense to use it to dance, but why would she have known to bring it? Miriam was a prophetess because she knew there would be reason to celebrate in the future. She prepared for this moment back packing here hand-drum.

This year in our preparation for Passover we are instituting a ” Timbrel Assignment” for everyone coming to the seder. Everyone must bring something : an idea, a story, a dvar Torah, an object – something to share that speaks to our experience of liberation. There is do doubt that this will inhance our seder. It is clear that Passover is all about preparation. But is not just about the superficial cleaning, it must also be about how we are preparing our souls for the exodus.