Community Rabbi Corner, April 3, 2020

Rabbi Moshe Rudin
Adath Shalom
Morris Plains, NJ
Parashat Tzav

This is the Bread of Affliction…
Prepare for Hope: D’var Torah for Pesach, 5780
 
The very first declaration of the Seder, הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא (Ha Lachma Anya), features the seder leader holding up the matzah and identifying it not as the bread of freedom and liberation, but, “This is the Bread of Affliction, eaten by our ancestors, slaves in Egypt!”
 
But aren’t we here to celebrate freedom? The miracles of the Exodus?  The great and dreadful night of watching? So why begin with the matzah as a symbol of degradation and oppression?
 
This bothered the Rabbis too. The Mishna says (Pesachim 116a) that when telling the story of Passover, מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח (Matchil Big’nut U’mesayem b’Shevach): Begin with degradation and conclude with elevation. The seder story starts in the darkness of oppression, in the poverty and brokenness and then, stage by stage we ascend to light: freedom, liberation, elevation. 
 
The Mishna is introducing a profound spiritual reality: no matter where we are, we are always on our way up to a higher place.  This year, as we shelter in place, joining with the rest of humanity to fight against the coronavirus, it is hard to think of celebrating the Exodus.  We are much more attuned to the low points of anxiety and uncertainty.
 
The Haggada says, הָשַּׁתָּא  עַבְדֵי (Hashta Avdei) - Now we are slaves.  This grim reality has shut us in our homes, glued us to our news outlets, filled us with worry, and truly sought to make us into slaves of Mitzraim: the narrow straits of fear and isolation.  
 
But the same declaration concludes: L'shana HaBa’ah B’nei Chorin - Next year we will be free!  That is the faith of being a Jew.  As certainly as dawn breaks through the darkness, as spring blooms forth from winter, as life renews and triumphs, so does all tyranny fail, all slavery ends. There is a presence in eternity that has told our hearts and shown our souls that this is so, that it must be so.
 
And it is that unseen light that we celebrate at Pesach.  We hold up the Bread of Poverty and watch as it is transformed into the Feast of Freedom. 
 
In the same way that our ancestors painted their rejection of fear and slavery in blood on their doorposts, so must we reject fear and slavery even as we are confined for now in our homes.  As they strengthened their faith and their connection to each other, to G-d and to their hopes and faith on that first seder night, so must we.  As they ate that first fearful meal girded for a journey, their staff in their hand, so must we prepare ourselves and work on ourselves for greater action, affirmation, compassion and the journey to renewal.  L’shana Ha’Ba’ah Bi Yerushalayim - Next year in Jerusalem! 
 
Chag Sameach - a holiday of redemptive joy and transformation to you and yours, to all of Israel and all dwellers upon earth. Amen!
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