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Pesach 5770
It is the morning before Pesach, and I’m sitting at Starbucks enjoying an Americano with a whole-grain bagel. The cleaning is all but finished at home and we’re mostly ready for the seder this evening. We may have a couple of friends joining us, but it will most likely just be my family of five.
I’ve thought about the theme of Pesach a lot this year: the redemption from Egypt; collectively as a people and individually from our own personal Pharaohs. There’s a couple of things I’d like to change this year in my struggle to return to the me I was before cancer struck our home, but that is not the forefront thought I have. Mostly I am thinking about an aspect of the communal nature of the chag.
The first seder was a hurried dinner in preparation for a flight from slavery. Since then it is a relaxed meal with friends and family that is filled with conversation, good food, and wine. As a convert I’ve only experienced a handful of them, but not one of them has ever been bad. Once the seder starts the worry and panic of getting ready for everything falls away and we begin the experience of our liberation.
This pulling together as a community isn’t the communal aspect I’ve been thinking of, rather it’s the other side of the coin that interests me. I’ve been thinking about how we Jews, in pulling together with each other, pull away from the Gentile world. We leave our jobs, our classes, and our recreational activities for a day or two and it is like a Jewish version of A Day Without a Mexican. I think about the silence of Jewishness in the greater parts of the world. I think about Egypt alone in its darkness while Judaism rests in the warm glow of her G~d.
Pesach is the most important holiday we have. Certainly, we celebrate the creation of the world on Rosh Hashanah and we receive forgiveness and hope for a better year on Yom Kippur, but Pesach is different. On Pesach we establish ourselves as G~d’s people and justify the year ahead of us. On Pesach we proclaim our commitment to G~d and reaffirm our identity as His children. On Pesach we don’t worry about what the world thinks of each of us, our people, and our Nation. On Pesach we spend a couple of days with our Creator and rest in His warmth and in our identity.
Each year we recite, “Next year in Jerusalem” as we express our hope in the coming of the mashiach, the ultimate redemption from Egypt he brings, and a world of peace. Who knows what the world has in store for us this year, but it doesn’t really matter as long as we sit at the seder. It doesn’t matter as long as we are eating and remembering what G~d has done for us throughout our generations. It doesn’t really matter what happens the year ahead of us as long as we remember, and therefore hope, for the completion of the work He began 3,000 years ago in Goshen, Egypt.
Chag Pesach Sameach
Riots at the Temple Mount
The JTA published this story about Palestinian youth locking themselves in the Al-Aksa Mosque and throwing stones at police and non-Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount. This was not just a random event. Apparently, according to the JTA, it was called for by the Wakf and other Islamic organizations asked Muslims to gather at the Temple Mount because radical Jews were laying the cornerstone for the third Jewish Temple. I don’t know about you, but hearing ‘radical Jew’ doesn’t really strike fear into my heart. Every now and again one of us fly off the handle, but for the most part the two words don’t really belong in the same sentence (unless you’re talking about a Jewish skateboarder from the 90s). Moreover, I really think that if the cornerstone were being laid it would be difficult for Jews to keep that a secret… unless Mossad was doing it. Otherwise, that’s too big an event to keep to yourself.
This article did make me think of the Messianic era, when it’s finally ushered in and Mashiach makes himself known and does all of his messianic work. I imagine then that things will be quite interesting and quite disruptive for just about everyone (“Earth and all its inhabitants dissolve” (Psalms 75:4 JPS)). In the end though, the world will be a peaceful place as “Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall never again know war.” (Isaiah 2:4 JPS)
At that time the world will live in peace. Unlike a couple of other religions I know of, this era does not mean the entire world will be homogenous in its religious practice. There will be Jews and non-Jews, just like before, except that there will be peace and all people will be united in the belief and worship of the One G~d. Jews, Muslims, and Christians will finally peacefully coexist.
How productive will the Nations be when we can all work together? How much good will be done when there is no longer a budget for armies and navies? We all know the destructive power of an aircraft carrier, but what good will it do for the world? What will be the medical advances? What will the poorest and most desperate parts of the world look like after a year?
This story covered by the JTA is ,sadly, not uncommon. I look forward to the day when all peoples can walk peaceably side-by-side at the Temple Mount.
It’s the Jews’ fault we desecrated their menorah
So says the Moldovan church in their recent ‘apology’ for the removal and replacement of a menorah in another location upside down. Read the entire article here.
What do you mean? Did you see the way those Jews were displaying themselves? They were totally asking for it.
I’m sorry. This is what the article sounds like, and blaming one’s criminal actions on another’s appearance is unacceptable.
Rabbi’s book says Jews can kill gentiles
A recent article in the JTA, referencing an article from Ha’aretz, stated Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira has published a book making the assertion it’s okay for Jews to kill non-Jews. In my opinion, you can replace ‘Jew’ with any nationality and ‘non-Jew’ with any other nationality and it puts it into a better perspective. Sadly, nations go to war and we kill each other. To make matters worse though this is from a Jewish source and I’ll bet you it will raise the ire of a few non-Jewish nations. Even worse, he says it’s okay to kill children if they’re an immediate threat.
Ach. Us Jews are having a hard enough time now and the last thing we need is our own people doing things like this to draw more attention. This is not the way we present ourselves. I hate reading things like this because it puts us in the same boat as the terrorists. We are not terrorists—Jews are not terrorists. We will and should do whatever it takes to protect ourselves, but we do not need to present ourselves as an overly aggressive people/nation. Let the military do that.
I pray this goes relatively unnoticed…
