Passover 2006

This year I hosted a Passover dinner at my house for the very first time. It was also the first time any of the guests had ever been to a Seder. Sarah, Paige, Angie, and Debra all agreed that it had been a moving experience. As for myself it was the first time I had been to a Seder in quite a few years due to the fact that my family still lives in southern California while I moved here 6 years ago.

I was reminded, as it says in the Haggadah, that Passover is a holiday for the world and not just the Jews. It is a timeless ritual that is more relevant than ever because it recounts, teaches, and celebrates freedom from all forms of tyranny.

The opening prayer states:

We have gathered on this festive evening to recall, retell, and re-enact the early history of our people who, from biblical times onward, have passed on a life philosophy infused with a burning desire to achieve personal freedom. As we relive in words and symbols the ancient quest for liberty, we pray that we shall become infused with a renewed spirit, inspiration, and understanding. May the problems of all who are downtrodden become our our problem; may the concern of all who are afflicted be our concern; and may the struggle of all who strive for liberty and equality become our struggle.


With words like these, it is easy to feel as though just sitting at the Pesach table will do something for the world. Yet it is also easy to come to the realization that the oppressor can learn from these lessons, too. The three lessons of Pesach:

1. The realization of freedom requires the willingness to make great sacrifices, for liberty is not achieved by complacency; it is accomplished by selflessness and courageous action.

2. Liberty is not achieved by sacrifice alone, sacrifice must be accompanied by alertness and readiness. To overlook the opportunity or miss the chance because we are not prepared to move quickly and decisively when the chance for freedom is upon us is to betray the hope of mankind.

3. Sacrifice and readiness must be accompanied by a dedicated leadership that keeps the spark of hope alive, if tyranny is to be overthrown and freedom to be won; the bitterness of our lot must never be allowed to develop into defeatism.

It occurred to me that the some of the actions of the Bush Administration appear to follow this model. The words "We must stay the course" (spoken in a very familiar mindless droning twang) echo in my head when I think about the need for sacrifice. The words "pre-emptive strike" might be used as a substitute for the concept of "seizing the opportunity for freedom" as taught by the Pesach ritual. And as for dedicated leadership, no one has been more tirelessly dedicated to his own nonsensical rhetoric than George W. Bush and his cronies-- and in this case it has been more akin to brainwashing. If terrorism is a form of oppression, the kind of sacrifice needed to combat that oppression is more akin to the courageous actions of the passengers of United Flight 93 than the meaningless sacrifice of over 2000 American lives. The concept of the need to act quickly and passionately in the name of liberty does not give us the right to invade another country who has done nothing to us.

As I contemplated how easy it is for a tyrant to twist these concepts into a vehicle for his own ambition I also see the distinction that a person either will or won't choose to make between the lessons of the Exodus, the oldest and most well-known story of the struggle for liberty, and the dogma of a powerful political agenda.

How many will choose to see the light?

When?