|
“In Every Generation”: A Reflection for Pesach, 5786
בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: "וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר: בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה יְיָ לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָיִם" (שמות יג ח)
In every generation a person must see oneself as having personally gone forth from Egypt. As it is written, “You shall tell your child on that day, ‘It’s because of what the Eternal did for me when I went forth from Egypt.’”
(Exodus 13:8).
- Haggdah Shel Pesach
Here the Rabbis invite us to step into the shoes (sandals!) of our ancestors,
to experience liberation through this ritual, not merely to tell a story of liberation long ago.
This makes every Seder an exercise in radical empathy: literally, empathy as the root of the Pesach experience. (“Radical” means “root.”)
It’s all about empathy: the ability to situate ourselves as onetime slaves who now owe our lives and our freedom to a power beyond our own.
Empathy means identifying with the pain of others, rooting our relationship in shared suffering and shared hope.
Empathy means the willingness to be this night with our Israeli and American brothers and sisters in uniform, summoned to the frontlines of war.
Empathy means that we see ourselves with them, that our Seder is also their Seder: in a shelter, a safe room, an army base, at sea, far from home.
Empathy means finding our story of freedom inscribed in the yearnings of the people of Iran who have long suffered under the tyranny of a brutal regime that would keep them in bondage and silence them with bloodshed.
Empathy means opening our minds and our hearts to take in the pain of those millions of children of God caught in the crossfire of war, whose leaders do not speak for them.
Empathy means standing up and speaking out against those who would sow terror and violence, no matter their language, country, or creed.
Empathy means working for equality, justice, and freedom from fear and harm – in Israel, in the West Bank and Gaza, throughout the Middle East, across this fragile and hurting world.
We pledge this Passover night to root our story, and our journey from this moment forward, in radical empathy. For in every generation – in every moment – we see ourselves as slaves brought forth from bondage to be free people, a light to the people of the world.
Additionally, we invite you to consider adding the following prayer to your Pesach Seder this year:
https://arza.org/a-prayer-for-the-jewish-people-on-this-pesach-5786/
-Rabbi Jonathan E. Blake
| 
