Passover Lessons

The Taste of Freedom


Forget Broadway. Judaism has produced the longest running play in history. It only runs for two nights a year but tickets have been selling for over three thousand years; did I mention still with the original cast? The play I am talking about is the Passover Seder. It is a “play” in many ways – as we sit around the table we read the script and employ all the props that tradition has given us. Wine, matzah, bitter herbs, and a royal meal are part of this grand historical re-creation of Yetziat Mitzraim, the Exodus from Egypt.

Besides being good theatre with a lot of audience participation, the Seder touches our most intimate sense. We declare the Matzah to be the bread of slavery and, as we eat it, we actually taste slavery. We taste the plain baked bread of a people about to escape and, most importantly we taste the anticipation of freedom. I really think it is time that Judaism won an Oscar- we have created a work of art that has stood the test of time and inspired countless other peoples to take our story, the story of slavery and freedom, and make it their own. Century after century nations have recast their own struggles using the language of our ancestors. How many times in the course of human history has the phrase “let my people go” been the cry of those wanting nothing more than the chance to live in freedom.

As we draw nearer to Passover, I would ask you to reflect on a different question: what does freedom taste like? The Jewish people were given freedom as a gift centuries ago but how can we ignore the fact that there are still entire populations that serve modern pharaohs and risk life itself for the chance to live in freedom.

The current state of rebellion in the Arab world is an example to remind us that freedom can come at a very high price. As we watch the people of several countries fill the streets in protest we can’t help but think of our own experience- we know what it is like to be ruled by an individual who seeks not the welfare of his people but their virtual enslavement for his own profit.

We do well to think about the taste of freedom- for much of the population of the Middle East freedom would taste like having enough to eat. Freedom would taste like the meal purchased by one’s own wages. Freedom would taste like a fine stew made of democracy and security. I only wonder if such a meal will ever be served.

I realize the implicit irony of talking about freedom in the Arab world- it is a world that wants to wipe the Jewish people off the pages of history. It is hard to wish freedom for those who profess hatred for you but perhaps that freedom would be a first step in destroying some of that hatred. Ironically perhaps that wish is our greatest expression of our freedom. I have to imagine that a world in which freedom is a universal possession is a better world than the one we live in now. Only time will tell but, as we sit around the Seder table, let’s give some thought to that possibility.