Life after the Seders

As we prepared to celebrate this week of Passover most of us focused on the Seders. There is good reason to- the Seder tells the story of Passover, it is the Mitzvah of retelling the Exodus story, and it is that special evening that we get to sit around the Seder table enjoying family and friends. Even in homes in which very few of the holidays are observed, most families get together for this great evening of Jewish storytelling. While not everyone may hold both Seders, Passover is a special time to embrace the lessons of hope and freedom that emerge from 4000 years of Jewish history. I remind you, however, that Passover does not end with the Seder; in fact it is only the beginning.

The fact is that there is life after the Seder! It is in fact the quintessential essence of Jewish life- taking in the spirit of the Jewish past to animate the Jewish present. A Jew without history is an orphan. Like a child without parents, we would have no idea of where we came from, how we got here, or, most importantly, why we are here. While the Haggadah does much to help us understand our pedigree, it is the rest of Passover that ties up our “loose ends.” For an entire week we taste the bread of affliction, we eat the bread of slaves, and we celebrate the birth of our nation.  Then at the end of Passover we get one final chance to see the panorama of our people unfold both in terms of our life as a people and our lives as individuals.

Today tracing the history of one’s family has become the new kind of “scrap- booking.” People spend hours on ancestry websites trying to discover small pieces of unknown family history. The reasons for this “craze” may be many but I believe one is more important than the others- we long to know who we are- the only way we can truly understand that is by knowing from where and from whom we have come. Passover is our ancestry website. We log on using the Haggadah, we share what we have learned during the Seder, and, at last, we personalize the lesson on the eighth day of Passover by observing Yizkor. Yizkor then serves as our own personal ancestry lesson. We remember who made us who we are. We reconnect with where we came from. We realize we share a history and fate with all those who join in the recitation of Yizkor.

The Longest Story Ever Told

You would think that after three thousand years we would have said just about everything there was to say about Passover, but after countless generations the Exodus story still catches our attention and teaches us new insights into the physical and spiritual existence of our people. Moses was the first to tell the story as he told the Israelites what they were about to experience. God made sure to give the story plenty of press by commanding that each year we recall the events- slavery, plagues, and freedom. It was a story to be told and retold in every generation for as long as the Jewish people existed. It has been the easiest of the mitzvoth to fulfill- families gather around the Seder table and, in their own way, begin, “why is this night different?” The Seder is the longest story that has ever been told and yet it is as fresh as a newly-released novel. Even those who are not Jewish have found inspiration and hope in the story and have tried to understand their own struggles as if they were the Israelite slaves. It is a story of hope and redemption that we have given the world and one in which countless peoples have found the courage to fight for their freedom. In this way we have truly been a “light to the nations” by sharing our story. I believe what is even more telling is that after three millennia the Passover story still inspires us on so many levels. All of us grew up hearing the story around the Seder table and here we are now- as parents and grandparent we tell the story to our children. The Hagadah is the story of both the Jewish past and the Jewish future. Like watching our favorite movie for the twentieth time- we know how it ends but there is something about it that just keeps calling us back. It is amazing that even though a family may not observe other holidays Passover is an occasion for everyone to be together. No, they may not read the Hagadah cover to cover, and Zade may make up his own version of the Seder, they are still together as Jews. The Hagadah was designed to teach every generation about Passover and it has done a great job. So what is the amazing staying power? What is the secret of a three thousand year old book that still makes the Jewish best seller list? I describe the “secret” of the Hagadah this way: the Hagadah recounts one specific event- the Exodus from Egypt, but in that event we see every moment of subsequent Jewish history. All that our people has experienced can somehow be understood against the backdrop of the struggle for freedom. Likewise, many of our individuals struggles in our own lives can be viewed as a struggle not so different that the Exodus. The struggle to be free, to be independent, to be able to feel like we are doing what we were “meant” to do. All of these things that every person faces sometime in life can be compared to our ancient struggle for freedom. It is for that reason that Passover’s textbook, the Hagadah, is also the textbook for life. This article appeared in the South Florida Jewish Journal