Pesach 5781
As I get ready for Pesach tomorrow evening, I have been studying and speaking with some really smart people! I am focused on two parts of the Seder this year, B’Chol Dor V’Dor and Maror.
We are told in the Haggadah: “In every generation each person is obligated to see her/himself as if she/he went out of Egypt. As I was studying this with Rabbi Brandon Bernstein this week, he pointed out that the Rambam translates this verse as: “In every generation, each person is obligated to show him/herself as if he/she went out of Egypt.
In the first reading, we have to see ourselves as if we left Egypt, a very personal introspective experience. A necessary experience if we are to be able to be a little more liberated and eventually freer this year. In the second reading, we have to show ourselves as if we left Egypt, a very public and naked experience. This is also a necessary experience if we are going to be able to be a little more liberated and eventually freer this year.
In the first, we have to see how we have become stuck in old ideas, old pathways and following a script that is no longer ours. We have to come to grips with the changes that have happened and not hang on to a way of living that just doesn’t fit us anymore. Slavery is, in this iteration, the desire to hold on too tightly to a way of living that just doesn’t work anymore.
We also have to see how we have become stuck serving people, things, ideas that trap us, keep us in tunnel vision and squeeze the life out of us. Serving a society that doesn’t see and appreciate who we are, serving an organization that just doesn’t want you anymore, living in a relationship/family that seeks to crush your spirit and make you in their image, rather than the Image of God you are, are all examples of this.
In the second, we have to show others the ways we have become enslaved. We have to stop hiding and conning people into believing that we are “fine”. We have to come to grips with the fear of living life authentically and out loud. No More Hiding, is what the Rambam is obligating us to. No More Mental Make-Up, Rabbi Heschel would teach us.
We also have to show ourselves to another(s) so that they can help us leave Egypt. We don’t get liberated on our own, we need the help of others and God. We get to ask for help and to give help to another(s), we get to be part of a new adventure that brings us closer to God and our own humanity. Showing our slavery to another(s) allows us to be welcomed in to community for who we are and who we are not-not needing to hide and feel like a phony.
The Maror, according to Sefaria Haggadah, is supposed to be dipped in Charoset before eaten. I disagree with this, the bitterness of Maror is so important for us to taste. It is the bitterness of slavery, the bitterness of hiding, the bitterness of ‘fauxthenticity’(a term Harriet coined), the bitterness of living a narrow life.
It is also to remind and ask ourselves if we are also enslavers and to taste the bitterness others experience from our enslaving them. We all have the capacity and the power to enslave others. I did when I was ‘doing my thing’ and putting my family through hell, fear, uncertainty and then wanting them to clean up my messes. I see how I have been both Pharaoh and Moses to self, family and another(s). We all have both of these forces inside of us and Maror reminds us to not get too uppity in our false pride of our sh*# doesn’t stink.
To anyone who has experienced me in my Pharaoh role, I am truly sorry if my Pharaoh overpowered your Moses (and my Moses). I commit to being there less this year and, I pray that my Moses was experienced more in the past and will be in the future.
Hag Sameyach, A Zissen Pesach, A Z’man(time) of True Freedom, A Year of Living Authentically and Joyously, Rabbi Mark