I – Not a Question
When I was first asked to reflect
on the meaning of Pesach in light of our present troubled times, I was not
quite sure how to respond. After all we Jews have celebrated Pesach wherever we
have lived, regardless of the conditions that society presented to us. I am sure Jews who celebrated Pesach during
the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, Chmelnitzki Massacres, Bar Kochba Revolt,
Almohades, blood libels, and the Nazi Holocaust (see for example, Yaffa Eliach HasidicTtales of the Holocaust pp. 16-19), to
name but a few of the most obviously Jewish troubled times, asked themselves
this very same question.
Tzarot rabim chatzi nechamah, and our
present situation is not the first time that we are head into Pesach with a
cloud of uncertainty about Jewish Redemption hanging over our heads. In fact, our Haggadah text includes quite a
few remembrances of those difficult eras, such as: Shfoch chamatcha al hagoyim
asher lo yeda’ucha, Vehi she’amda…shelo echad bilvad amad alenu
lechalotenu, and most probably Chad Gadya
which has been understood symbolically as a history of Jewish suffering,
survival and Divine redemption.
Jews have sung Avadim Hayinu,
even while their hearts were breaking from persecution and destruction, for we have
recognized and understood that the message of Pesach is not only about actually
gaining our physical freedom from Pharaoh.
More importantly, Pesach is about having received the tools to continually
remain mentally and spiritually free, even while living under conditions that challenged
our physical freedom and existence. Jews have survived in difficult times davka because of the message of Pesach implanted
firmly within us.
Furthermore, Pesach became not
just the symbol of the historical Exodus from
II – Searching for Relevancy
Having noted that regardless of
world and local events, our real attitude to the holiday of freedom this year does
not change, it would be unfair not to attempt to extrapolate certain themes from
the holiday story, which may speak most directly to us today. In fact, this is
part of what we recite in the Haggadah: bechol dor vador chayav
To find that relevance to our
time, we need to sharpen our focus on the story of the Exodus that we retell at
the Seder. Our written Haggadah text is basically the
answer to the Four Questions. And the answer, in short, is: We were slaves to
Pharaoh, and G-d took us out; therefore we need to set aside a night to thank Him
at the seder for that fact: Thank you Hashem!
However, in the excitement of the
evening, there is usually one question that is overlooked, and it is the
following: OK, G-d, it is great that You took us out,
but let us not forget who got us in! Why
do we thank G-d for His Exodus of our people, when in effect He was
instrumental in causing our migration and yeridah
into
Answer this question, and we may
perhaps begin to understand something for our own generation of suffering. We will attempt here to summarize three general
themes found among the Biblical and Rabbinic commentators who have grappled
with this question, and we will append our own comments of relevancy to our
time. (Many of the Biblical and Rabbinic opinions are collected and explained
in Mordechai Winiarz, The Reasons for the Bondage,
published in the Y.U. Haggadah, RIETS-YU 1985.)
III – Answers That Heighten
the Question
1) The Egyptian Bondage served as
a punishment. This may be a punishment along the lines of ma’aseh avot siman
lebanim, and plays itself out in the different commentators as various
interpretations:
a] The
bondage served as a punishment for
b] It was a punishment for his lack
of faith at the Brit Ben Habetarim, when he asked how would
he know that he will inherit the land (Talmud Nedarim 32a).
c] It was a punishment for
d] It was a punishment for the selling
of
e] It was a punishment because we
abolished circumcision after the death of
Comment:
Traditionally during times of
travail and tzarah, Jews have used
this as the most common response. From a theological perspective, it is neat
and makes sense. If we are suffering and the Almighty watches over the Jewish
people, it must stem from a Divine displeasure and anger with our behavior. The
response becomes therefore for us to take a careful accounting and assessment
of our behaviors (read mitzvot and averot), correct our errors, and
improve our ways, so that G-d will forgive us. This common response to sorrow
and trouble finds expression in fasting, special prayers, Tehillim,
divrei hit’orerut,
and other religious and liturgical patterns, during which we reflect on our
present situation. (That does not always mean that we need be resigned to the
destruction and punishment; the arguments in the
Therefore, a self-searching for
religious improvement and enhancement in our own personal and collective
life-styles, to influence G-d to amend any decree (or potential decree) of
retribution, would be in line with our seeking meaning for today’s events in
the story of the Egyptian servitude. It goes without saying that the Jewish
community has in many cases instituted those forms and mechanisms, as ways of
trying to grapple with the events of the present.
IV – Answers That Offer Broad
Strokes Of
There are other approaches
offered by the commentators to explain the Egyptian Bondage, answers that have
a positive encouraging ring to them.
2) The Egyptian Bondage served an
educational tool to help develop the Jewish people. There are a few variations
on this theme:
a] The
educational value lay in creating a structure that allowed and indeed forced us
to bond together for the first time as a people. There was therefore a national
value in the effect of the Egyptian Bondage that molded us by having us
experience a shared fate.
b] There was a theological value
that showed us that G-d can really become (and does become) involved in our
history and destiny by redeeming us from times of difficulty.
c] A very important educational
value that we learned as a people in Egypt was our being sensitized for all
time to the ethical and moral responsibilities and concerns that we need have
for the stranger (ger) and the unfortunate in our society. Because we
went through that very experience - ki gerim heyitem be’eretz mitzra’im,
we are always aware of this human need.
3) The bondage in
Comment:
The common denominator of the
last two approaches is that the Egyptian Bondage may be seen in a positive
light, as a constructive experience in the shaping, developing and nurturing of
the nascent Jewish people. Difficult
experiences may actually be stimuli for positive growth and development of ourselves and our peoplehood. With some imagination and a
lot of positive thinking, one may begin to speculate that the negative
experiences of the present may one day yield positive affirmative results for
our people. How, when and what, would be too complex to even begin to imagine,
let alone to suggest. However, if the story of the Egyptian Bondage is a
template, perhaps we can look forward somewhere and sometime to a positive,
optimistic, and upbeat future.
V – But Is This Reality?
Needless to say, these Biblical
and Rabbinic interpretations benefit from the 20/20 vision of hindsight. We sit
back and discuss these and other explanations and suggestions at our seders, in our classes, and with colleagues, friends and
family, with a sense of calm; for after all it is ancient Jewish history; it is
theology study, it is but Bible and belief. It is not today! We can be more relaxed
and dismissive about what was then, than with what will be now!
However, let us for a moment put ourselves in the shoes (sandals) of the Egyptian Jew on the
street (alluvial pit) a year before
This year’s Pesach challenges us
to make the connection, the analogy between that Jew in Egypt waiting for
redemption, waiting and not knowing, waiting and questioning; and the situation
today. We sit with many questions regarding the quagmire of our present
situation.
I have no doubt that somewhere/somehow
there is a positive reason for what is happening in our troubled times; but I
have about as much an answer today as that Egyptian Jew in the alluvial pits
building bricks for cruel taskmasters and waiting for a redeemer that may have
seemed to him more allegorical than real.
But
This year when you sit at your
seder and view Pesach from the traditional perspective of Jewish triumphalism,
of Israelites marching out of Egypt, led by the Cloud of Glory, clutching their
matzah dough, as the Egyptians stand by bewildered, scurrying around to bury
their dead; stop for a moment and remember the days before Moses showed up.
Today are those days. The positive values that flowed from the Egyptian Bondage
are our template for today. The positive
reason from all this suffering is yet to be written by our commentators of the future,
but I am confident it will be worth the wait.