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The Lesson of Passover

04/04/2023 02:35:34 PM

Apr4

Rabbi Ron Segal

Chag Sameach!  Whether you are going to celebrate your first or second Passover Seder this evening, I hope that the opportunity to gather around the table with family, friends, new acquaintances, or any combination of the above, adds sincere joy to this year’s Passover observance. Many may have learned at some point over the years that in order to fully grasp the significance of Passover, we must approach the Seder as more than mere witness to a history lesson on our Israelite ancestors’ liberation from Egyptian bondage. Rather, as our tradition teaches, in order to appreciate the depth of meaning and genuine significance embedded in this festival, it is incumbent upon each participant to try and experience the journey from bondage to freedom recounted in the Haggadah as if we were there, delving into the rituals, the foods, and the text with full heart and intention. For then, as our sages teach, we all might finally assimilate the wisdom and strive to realize through future actions THE central and timeless message of Passover: “None are free unless all are free.”

The Reform Movement’s new Haggadah, Mishkan HaSeder (CCAR Press, 2021, p.52), includes this stirring, evocative and relevant reading, “The Four Children at the Seder Table: Which Child Am I?”:

As we celebrate the Holiday of Freedom, the ending of slavery, we ask, “Who am I, when hear of human rights abuses?
Who will I choose to be when I know that others are suffering?”
Will I be the one who does not ask? Will I close the newspaper or turn off the technology, so that I do not hear or see? Will I turn my head and heart away?
Will I ask only simple questions? “What is this?” Will I ask what, but never why?
Will I let the evil impulse, my yetzer hara, ask: “What has this to do with me?” Will I let the problem belong only to the victims and the do-gooders? Will I distance myself from those in need?
Or will I strive to act in wisdom, to ask: “What are the underlying causes of the problem and what needs to be done to stop the abuse and free the oppressed? What are the laws and what does God expect of me?”
May God open the eyes of those who do not see, the mouths of those who do not ask, and the hearts of those who do not care, and grant us the wisdom to open our hands to our fellow humans when they are in need – the hand of generosity, the hand of support, the hand of peace and friendship.  (by Rabbi Ma’ayan Turner)

May this year’s Passover observance inspire us to be people of wisdom, individuals who are prepared to do the hard work of working for freedom for all who are oppressed. 

Wishing you and yours a meaningful Passover,

Rabbi Ron Segal

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784