Don’t Pass this Over

Passover, which began last night at sundown, is the most widely celebrated Jewish holiday amongst both religious Jews and otherwise unaffiliated Jews. Passover’s ability to compete with a commercialized Christmas-substitute, Hannukah, might seem surprising. The observance of Passover involves an often drawn-out retelling of history before the meal and then a week of abstaining from bread, pasta and other wonders of the modern diet. Popular opinion has ordained that Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) has more to offer than eight nights of presents in December, President Obama has even introduced the ritual meal (seder) into the White House.

The celebration of Passover revolves around storytelling and a ritual meal. Both of these arts have been widely forgotten in the world of the 24-hour news cycle and fast food. Trends such as the podcast “The Moth,” which champions the power of telling a story, and a growing Slow Food movement suggest that society is beginning to re-affirm what observers of Passover have long acknowledged as they gather around the table, listen to the reading of the Haggadah, which tells of the Jews’ exodus from slavery in Egypt, and join with family or friends to enjoy a carefully prepared meal.

Rituals such as the seder can be spiritually meaningful and certainly establish meaningful cultural and communal ties among those who observe them. But there are many rituals in Judaism, and many people who don’t hesitate to order the ham and cheese sandwich 364 days of the year still find their way to the seder table sometime in late March or early April.

I suspect the universal messages of freedom, redemption, and social justice are a large part of what has made the holiday so compelling in every century and every locale where Jews have lived.

At the seder last night, Jews around the world remember the (probably) mythical story of their enslavement under a despotic Pharaoh, and how a charismatic leader and his God led the oppressed to an opposite shore of liberation and peace. There are many
oppressed peoples around the world, and a shortage of burning bushes and miraculously parted seas. The Jewish tradition of recounting that, “we were all slaves in Egypt” personalizes the narrative and created a collective memory of the importance of the freedom struggle for all of humankind.

This tradition calls up the image of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching arm-in-arm with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. It might help to explain why the anti-Genocide Save Darfur movement was fueled in large part by the work of Jewish activists. 

Everyone can take something from the traditions that make Passover so popular — tell stories, eat slowly, imagine oppression as if you had experienced it, and then work to end it. At my seder this year, we focused on how this ancient story can inspire us to abolish tyranny in its modern manifestations. We looked inward at the chains that still prevent us from achieving inner freedom and wholeness. Strangers became family, history became present and social justice became a personal imperative — and then, we ate.


E-mail: swilensk@indiana.edu