This Shabbat is the fourth (and final) installment in a series of Shabbatot meant to prepare us for Passover. For each of these weekends, we take out a second Torah scroll, and we read a small snippet of text relating to the special theme for that particular Shabbat. Tomorrow morning's theme is "Ha-Chodesh," meaning "THE Month." Indeed, this is an important month, because Pesach is just around the corner, and our special reading on this occasion informs us that God declares this to be the FIRST month of the year. Appropriate to the theme, our selected reading comes from Exodus, 12:1-20, and outlines some of the basic rituals that God prescribed for our ancient ancestors while still in slavery in Egypt. But they weren't the only ones expected to listen attentively to these new rules...
The first Passover was celebrated still in slavery. Maybe this is obvious to you, but I find that it sometimes surprises people, because we refer to it as the Festival of Freedom. Every OTHER Pesach celebrated/s our having been freed from slavery... but those very first celebrants were actually still enslaved, and were holding their breath with MUCH anxiety and concern, wondering if indeed God's plan was going to work. Knowing this about the text's original audience, we might be forgiven for thinking these laws applied mainly to them. God says, "This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it hurriedly!" (v. 11) Well sure, that makes sense. They've got to be ready to leave post haste! Surely that part of the law applied exclusively to them, to the slaves, but not to subsequent generations. Right?
Just a few verses later, God clarifies the Divine intent: "you shall celebrate it [Pesach] as a festival to Adonai throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time." (v. 14) Even though subsequent generations of Jews were not themselves slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, they - and we - were expected to celebrate the festival in the very same way. Hence we make our flat, under-baked matzah, we tell the story of the Exodus as if it JUST happened, and some traditions actually paint red streaks on their door posts or physically march around the Seder table; all meant to place ourselves back in the Pesach narrative. Because God knew, and our ancestors understood, that there is great power in bringing your history with you wherever you go, and continuing to feel the power of its messages.
The ancient rabbis who established the Passover Seder felt this quite viscerally. And they enshrined this value in our Haggadah, when they decreed that every person is *required* to view themselves AS IF they too were being redeemed from slavery. If we allow this to be an ancient fairytale, then it loses some of its commanding force. It is absolutely paramount that we not only retell the story of our dead ancestors, but that we truly place ourselves BACK into our history. Feel the humility of having been a slave; acknowledge the awesomeness of God's saving power for having ended our oppression; and commit to our Torah just as our ancestors did standing at the foot of Mount Sinai. Furthermore, there is a lesson in here that goes WAY beyond Pesach or even the Torah. What might it mean to live our lives "as if"?
As if we believed we could change the world,
as if we cared deeply about the plight of oppressed peoples today,
as if we knew what it meant to be grateful for being alive and for being free? As we all begin to prepare for Pesach in earnest, let's not become too absorbed in the cleaning and the cooking. Let's also remember to live AS IF this was our very own story, and we too were about to be redeemed. "As if" can be a tremendous force for good in the world; and we can be the ones who wield it... IF we are ready.
Shabbat Shalom.
No comments:
Post a Comment