Imagine that you are a slave. Not only that but your parents were slaves, as well, and their parents before them, and their parents, too. If there is one self-evident truth in your life, it is this: You will always remain a slave, and so will your children, and their children after them. Nothing ever changes.
Then, suddenly, everything changes. God shows up and the unthinkable happens – you are freed. That which was unimaginable a short time ago has now become a reality, your reality. You will forever feel an immense debt of gratitude, and you hope your children will, too.
This is the story of the Jewish people that will be celebrated on the first night of Passover (the Festival of Freedom) at the Seder meal. Jews are required to remember the fact of their departure from Egypt every day, and the memory is embedded in our daily prayers.
Once a year, on Passover, we gather together to reenact our departure from Egypt at the Passover Seder, which includes symbolic Passover foods, as well as readings from the Haggadah, which helps to tell the story.
The Exodus from Egypt, following centuries of slavery, is the most significant event in the formation of the Jewish nation. Memories of how the Israelites left Egypt are recalled every year at Passover, showing us where our strength and character come from.
When we sit down to the Passover Seder meal, in countries all over the globe, many of us far from the Promised Land, we talk about our beginning and what we have in common.
The youngest asks: “Why is this night different from all others?” We answer, for the next generation to hear, that it is because we were slaves in Egypt and everything we are about to do on this night is so that we will never forget how God freed us.
All our senses are used to integrate these memories into our brains and our collective memories. We taste the matzah (unleavened bread), smell the sharpness of the bitter herbs, and sing the prayers and songs. Each part of the Seder connects us in some way to the freedom that we achieved when we left Egypt.
The Jewish calendar is set so that certain holidays always occur in a particular season of the year. Thus, the holiday of Passover is also the holiday of spring, not by coincidence but by design. Following the darkness of winter, when many plants are dormant, spring marks the rebirth of the earth with the bursting forth of budding trees. Similarly, the Israelite people, oppressed as slaves, burst forth out of Egypt into a new life’s journey filled with many challenges but the gift of freedom.
It is my hope that as the springtide of nature fills each creature with joy and hope that the Passover festival of redemption will hasten the great day of liberty for all those who around the world still chafe under the yoke of oppression. Wishing all our readers a happy spring holiday season.
ED. NOTE: The author is rabbi at Beth Judah Temple, in Wildwood.
