I hope everyone had meaningful Seders this year! This week for the Shabbat of Passover we have a special Torah reading that reminds the listener that God made a covenant with the Jewish people rooted in the Torah to include our holidays. In that reading we find a well known passage (we read it during the High Holidays) about the characteristics of God who is "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.” During the week of Passover (and Sukkot) when we reflect on God’s characteristics we are asked to reflect on our own. The freedom that we recall during Passover is a characteristic of God, and therefore us as well.
Rabbi Abraham Cook, who was the founder of the modern Chief Rabbinate of Israel, teaches that each of us during Passover is to recall, or rediscover, our own freedom within. Thus Rav Cook writes, “What makes us truly free? When we are able to be faithful to our inner self, to the truth of our Divine image - then we can live a fulfilled life focused on the soul's inner goal.” Passover is just not a time to remember the freedom of the slaves of old and Jewish history, although it tells us about our past, but it speaks to our today also. On the Seder plate we have two places for bitter herbs, Maror (מרור) and Chazeret (חזרת). Both tell the story that “the experience of the Jewish people’s slavery in Egypt, which was not initiated all at once, but rather conducted gradually and so grew progressively more bitter.” But the ongoing bitterness of slavery is generational, meaning that while most people today have not been physical slaves in Egypt (or the Shoah), we all suffer because of the effects of racism and antisemitism, lack of rights for minorities, women and the LGBTQ+ community. There is fallout from the political polarization in this country that continues to divide people, the bitterness of disinformation and balanced reporting, pain and suffering from illness and disease, abuse of power and position and the list can go on. Bitterness is not a one time thing but lingers. We can also become captive to the bitterness that has the power to engulf, and therefore, enslave us. That is part of the story too.Today we are suffering the bitterness of the evil of Hamas and its aftermath. I began my Seders this year by saying (as I am sure many of you did as well) that this is no ordinary year, we have families and friends who are being held captive right now in Gaza, although we continue to say l’olam lo shuv, never again. I recently read words by Rabbi Marc Katz of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, New Jersey who has called the situation for us Jews (and Jewish communities) in Gaza a “messy middle.” It's a “messy middle” because this is not black and white as Rabbi Katz further wrote that as people we “can hold a lot of things at once, and you can feel for the Palestinian people, you can feel for the Israeli people. Compassion is not a zero-sum game.” The Rabbi is saying that the “messy middle” reflects that many Jews in Israel and around the world do not want to fight, do not want to see innocent people on either side suffer or die, and want to see both Jew and Arab raise their children and families freely without threat. Yet they also see the need to fight the evil of Hamas that must be destroyed while knowing the world criticizes Israel and more innocent people will have to die in order to secure Jewish and Arab freedom so two people can live side by side. The Jews in Goshen were the same; they just wanted to live in peace, yet innocent people (Jews and innocent Egyptians) had to die in the process. Today we have a new battle that rages, the battle for our Jewish and Israel supporting young people who are entering the university system. This battle is fighting for the right to walk on campus in safety, to learn and voice opinion without fear, to stand up to antisemitism, but also islamophobia. Seeking a win-win is truly hard for all, hence a "zero-sum game," but evil must be eradicated and people freed.
Last week I mentioned the words of the Abarbanel, who wrote, “By spilling a drop of wine from the Pesach cup for each plague, we acknowledge that our own joy is lessened and incomplete, for our redemption had to come by means of the punishment of other human beings. Even though these are just punishments for evil acts, it says, “Do not rejoice at the fall of your enemy” (Proverbs 24:17).” Our sense of compassion can be compromised by the chametz (leaven) of anger, or even hate, one sided justice, fear and grave disappointment. What does chametz have to do with this? Again calling on Rav Cook he teaches that the “leavening agent” (chametz) that makes “dough rise” is added to change the doughs “natural shape and characteristics.” As humans we must seek out what is natural shape in order “to be faithful to our Divine image.” The chametz of anger and fear (etc.) can also change our “natural shape and characteristics” of love and compassion both for friend and foe. When we recall the plagues we recall those who died for Israel's freedom from slavery, yet we are never to rejoice that their freedom came and the expense of an Egyptian life, no matter how evil. The "messy middle" says be angry at evil but do not rejoice at the death of a life, even of an enemy.
According to our Divine Image we have the middah (characteristic) of rachmones, or mercy, compassion, forgiveness and empathy (reflecting God's character above). The Passover story is challenging us to live in the “messy middle” in order to hold true to our truths and have compassion for those who do not. When we rid our lives of the chametz that gets in the way of such a lofty goal, then per the words of Rav Cook, we are truly free.
Shabbat Shalom and Moadim L'Simcha,
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
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