Outstretched Arm: Passover 5776

 Sparks Pesach 2016

Torah Sparks

Exodus 12:21 – 12:51 & Numbers 28:16 – 28:25 – Pesach 1 (Shabbat)
Leviticus 22:26 – 23:44  & Numbers 28:16 – 28:25 – Pesach 2 (Sunday)

The Haggadah, the special text used to organize our celebration of the seder – the first Passover meal and ritual retelling of its story – is the most popular of all Jewish books. Over the generations it has been issued in countless editions. They cannot be counted because they continuously proliferate. The current wealth of new ways to conduct a seder is an amazing expression of our creativity and engagement in making Passover meaningful and engaging. We are blessed to enjoy so many new songs, interpretations, games, and media with which we may enhance our experience.

But I would like to focus on one small statement from the traditional haggadah, a statement that may not always find its way into more contemporary renditions of the haggadah. It occurs right at the beginning of our telling the story, in response to the famous Four Questions, the Mah Nishtanah. We answer that this night is different because “Avadim hayinu… we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Eternal, our Almighty God, took us out… and so it is a mitzvah for us to tell this story.” Following this simple statement is a second proposition. We declare that “Had the Eternal not taken our ancestors out from Egypt, then we and our children and our children’s children would remain enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt.”

This is quite a claim! It tells us that the Exodus from Egypt was not just a great miracle. It also tells us that it was a uniquely redemptive moment. Had it not occurred, it would never have occurred, ever! And we would all be slaves, and our grandchildren, far into the future would still remain slaves. This statement is meant to grab us by the shoulders and fling us from a mere reminiscence of a past wonder story into the contemplation of a dreadful and hopeless future. The extreme claim of this statement is that the Exodus could only have happened once and for all – or it never would happen at all.

How can this be believed? Why could we not accept the possibility that, had the Exodus not happened when it did, perhaps it would have occurred at a later date? If the revolution fails today, does that mean that we can never hope for its success in the future?

The traditional haggadah says that, on this night of questions, there is no room for such questions as these. Because the basis for such questions is the Exodus itself! Our haggadah is telling us that without the Exodus, we would never be able to entertain hope for change in the future. Had we not been liberated from Egypt we would have been enslaved to a concept of time and of history that had no room for believing in freedom, transformation and growth.

Many modern approaches to the seder, as they create new vehicles for telling the story and engaging with each other, also encourage us to become aware of contemporary conditions that echo the elements of the Passover story – including outrageous examples of modern slavery, oppression and suffering – in the hopes of mobilizing our energies to confront them and change them. The statement found in the traditional haggadah tells us that it is the Exodus itself that makes it possible for us to care about such problems. It is the Exodus itself that makes it possible for us to think that we can do something about them.

The redemption from Egypt was not just another political revolution. It was the creative act that made the very concept of political revolution possible. That is why it took “a strong hand and an outstretched arm.” We could not have done it ourselves. God had to wrench history into being from out of the static spirit of the house of bondage, inhabited by Egyptian and Hebrew alike. God had to overpower our own spirits of depression, cynicism and apathy in order to instill within us a heart that yearns for and believes in freedom and dignity.

Have a Sweet Pesah!
Rabbi David Greenstein


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Image(s): “reaching” © Lindsey Turner altered and used with permission via Creative Commons License

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