Memory is a very, VERY powerful force. Your own personal memories of your childhood, education, relationships, life experiences; these all join together to form a very foundational core of individual identity.
The same is actually true for groups and entire communities. A shared narrative around how *we* came into existence, what we've been through, and how that memory is passed down from one generation to the next; these are also essential principles for collective identity. Right now, as we get ready to celebrate Passover, we are arguably reviewing the most central, epitomizing, and formative memory that we're all meant to share: Slavery in Egypt, God punishing our enemies and freeing us from oppression, and our subsequent coalescing into a nation, a people, during our time baking in the desert sun for 40 years. But what if, metaphorically-speaking, we DON'T remember?? What if this story has no meaning or impact on us, or we simply do not see how it's supposed to still be relevant? What then?
The hard truth is, no one can MAKE a person embrace someone else's memory. Our theme this year is "Radical Honesty," right? If you don't see the value in this
shared narrative, then I'm not going to waste my breath (or typing) trying to beg, plead, and implore you to take it on. Every one of us has to CHOOSE to make meaning of our tradition... or not. The Pesach Seder can be a transformative, time-traveling, value-centering, memory-making, tradition-bequeathing, powerful, crescendo-to-the-entire-Jewish-year type experience... or it can be dinner on a Friday. One thing is for sure; the Torah, the ancient rabbis, and all of Jewish ritual, pedagogy, and storytelling-ability is working overtime to try to make this story relevant to YOU. The Passover narrative is SO important to us. We tell and retell and retell and retell this communal memory (possibly ad nauseam...) so that even the very act of reciting the story should convey how much we care about it!!
This weekend, we have arrived at the last of four special
Shabbatot before Pesach (though actually there's one more to come...). Each of the four comes with a special
Maftir reading, which is tacked on to the end of the regular Torah portion.
This Shabbat, known as "Ha-Chodesh," draws its unique reading from Exodus 12:1-20, which illustrates my point about collective memory quite perfectly. God is speaking to Moses and Aaron
while still in Egypt. That part is important. God gives them the basic rituals of the Seder - most of which we still retain "to this day" - and God also emphasizes that "you shall celebrate it as a festival to Adonai throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time" (v. 14). The text deliberately goes back and forth between talking to an audience (supposedly) still in slavery in Egypt, and every subsequent generation ever; including you and me in 2019. It interweaves rituals unique to the literal slaves in literal Egypt, with customs that are meant to be repeated by metaphorical "slaves" in metaphorical "Egypt." Rabbis, throughout the millenia, then mimic that behavior, constantly addressing a specific audience wherever and whenever they lived... AND adding traditions and practices that are meant to stand the test of time. And yes, we're still doing that "to this day."
Now, I keep putting "to this day" in quotes, because that phrase is used multiple times in our
Maftir reading, and indeed throughout the Bible. But also because that phrase itself is a metaphor. When was the original "this day" about which
they're talking? Who knows? And frankly, who cares? "This day" is TODAY. On Friday, April 5th, 2019, if that IS when you're reading this, or any subsequent day when you get to this blog post, and any other day for that matter. The point is, all of Jewish tradition wants YOU (yes, YOU-YOU) to take ownership of this memory, of the Exodus from Egypt. I still can't make you do it. You can still "just" go have dinner on Friday, April 19th. But please know that this was important enough to *all* our ancestors, and to *all* our teachers past, present, and future, to want to keep passing it along to every new generation. Despite oppression, despite apathy, despite a million other things competing for your attention and time; Judaism wants you to know: THIS. STORY. MATTERS. So maybe you can do me one small favor? Before you make a decision one way or another, just think back for a second, really, really hard... You sure you weren't there, leaving bondage in Egypt and wandering through the desert??? Are you 100% sure? I could have sworn I saw you there... Oh well. And hey, if you don't remember it on "this day," maybe one day you will.
CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
1.
BnB on
Pixabay
2.
Corey Seeman on
Flickr
3.
Pxhere
4.
ColumbiaStahrArtwork on
Wikipedia
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