From Redemption to Redeemers

FROM REDEMPTION TO REDEEMERS: THE MESSAGE OF PASSOVER

Rabbi Michael Feshbach

More than a thousand generations ago, a certain group of Hebrew slaves in ancient Egypt escaped from their bondage and left behind the land of their captivity. The events turned a loose rag-tag association of tribes into a nation, which left its mark on the religious consciousness of humankind.

This year, Passover begins on Friday night. The holiday begins with a festive meal and special observances, and it lasts for eight days (seven in some circles - especially in Reform Judaism).

Passover is most characterized by two particular observances. The first is the "Seder", the ritual meal held on the first two nights at which the story of the Exodus is told and retold in great detail. The second is that, in memory of the hasty departure from Egypt (in which even the bread that the Israelites were preparing did not have time to rise), most Jews refrain throughout this holiday from eating bread or any kind of food that "rises" in a similar way. Thus, only "unleavened" , or flat, crispy bread called Matzah, is eaten, and the only flour used in cooking is made from this Matzah.

The name Passover comes from the last of the ten plagues against the Egyptians, when the angel of death came at night and killed all the firstborn in Egypt, but "passed over" the houses of the Jews that had been specially marked.

A story is told in the Haggadah, the special book used at the ritual meal, about certain rabbis who lived in the second century. These rabbis spent the entire evening after this meal discussing the "redemption" involved in the Exodus from Egypt. They continued with their discussions all through the night, until their students came to them and said: "Masters, the time has come to recite the morning blessings.”

On the surface, this is a cute little story. It says that each year Jews should spend time thinking about the Exodus, the real beginning of the Jewish people .But this story also tells much more about the deeper significance of Passover.

These rabbis lived under the Roman Empire, at a time during which both Jews and Christians were persecuted. Simply observing Passover at all was a crime punishable by death - and some of the rabbis in this story were eventually martyred.

There is a theory that what they were doing that night was both talking about the past redemption, the Exodus from Egypt, and actively trying 1 'bring about a future redemption - by plotting a revolution (ill-fated though it was) against the Roman oppressors. Their students came to tell them not, "It is time to pray now," but to warn them: It is morning; it is time to begin less subversive activities.

In the annual celebration of Passover, past and present - and future - meet and interact. Every year a Jew is told: In every generation, each person must think that he or she came out of Egypt. The redemption was not just in the past, but is experienced every year as a present event.

This is the key to understanding Passover. Redemption is an ongoing experience and a need in the present. Every year, as long as there is hunger, oppression or poverty in the world, while someone, somewhere, cries out for freedom, the Jew is commanded to feel the experience of being freed himself , and to help others wherever needed. "This year", the very end of the Haggadah reads, if there is discrimination or degrading, slave-like conditions anywhere, "we are all slaves". The closing words of the Haggadah express the eternal Jewish hope; physically and spiritually, "Next year may we all be free. Next year in Jerusalem.”