Chol HaMoed Pesach
This Shabbat is the third intermediate day in the Festival of Passover. For one Shabbat we depart from the regular cycle of Torah reading to concentrate on the festival. The Torah turns to one of the many places where Passover is mentioned, its laws reviewed, instructions for the observance of the feast clarified. A reminder and a vision: reminder that each of us has in our spiritual DNA the mark of having been slaves; a vision that, almost against human nature, we are to be dissenters, non-conformists in the world. Because we were strangers we are to treat the stranger fairly. One law for the citizen and the stranger, the Torah reminds us. Because we were slaves we have an obligation to act as liberators.
The rituals are imbued with meaning. It is not only nostalgia for the smells in our mother’s kitchen as she cooked for the Seder, or for a melody only our father knew to chant for Avadim Chayinu. It is not only longing for a time when we “enjoyed” the story, or the company of a loved one who no longer sits around the table. It can be all these things, but not only. A people does not live by nostalgia alone. A people lives for a vision, for affirming something in the world which is greater than ourselves. Irvin Kula reminds us that the goal of being Jewish is not to be Jewish, but rather to become a particular kind of person in the world, with values that train us to be aware. That is what is embedded at the core of the Passover message.
As we move through the days of Passover the Torah lessons take us from the story of enslavement, God taking notice, Moses as reluctant prophet, confrontation, plagues and liberation to the crossing of the sea. Almost at every step the story is interrupted in order to have time to create appropriate rituals: the laws of the paschal sacrifice; the markings by our doors, the hastily procured matzah, the obligation to instruct our children on the story and its meaning throughout the generations.
The past is important, it grounds us, it sustains us; but it is the future that propels us, that encourages us to create and grow. That is why we are supposed to teach our children, that is why we consider the Exodus experience just the first of many instances of liberation, which is why we place a cup on our Seder table that reminds us of Messianic times. It is only when humanity --we Jews just a model- completes the work of redemption, when all shall be free and none shall suffer that the vision will be real, the ritual no longer necessary. Until then, my friends, we’ll keep celebrating around the Seder table, eating matzah for seven days, retelling our story not just to look back but to remind ourselves of what is really important and how much more work we have yet to do.
Moadim L’Simcha and Shabbat Shalom -May this season be full of joy and this Shabbat full of peace,
Rabbi Roberto D. Graetz
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