Passover, many Jews
celebrate tonight, for me is a ritual of rebirth. Easter, often
occurring at a similar time as Passover, is the story of the
resurrection of Christ. It symbolizes to me a victory over the slavish
fear of death we must all face. Both stories are liberating with an
emphasis of renewal. The Passover story of the Exodus in the Hebrew
Bible tells of the escape of the Jews from slavery to freedom. That
story rings true for many around the world even in our time. It did so
in our nation for persons of color who knew the veracity of the genuine
tortures of slavery, their person brought to this nation by ship in
hellish conditions, against their will and in chains to be owned by
another person who through accident of birth was born white. The faith
persons of color adopted in their new land suffering the gravest
injustices gave hope as the story of the Exodus did for Jews that they
would be liberated from slavery to freedom overcoming it, as the song
dictates, some day they will. The veracity of these stories matters
not. There is no hard evidence that Jews were enslaved in Egypt for 400
years nor is there hard evidence that Christ rose from the dead. They
are accepted on faith and by tradition. What matters is that these
stories bestow to people who need it the precious commodity of hope to
choose life despite the vicissitudes of it and to go on to live another
day. Faith is the hope that the arc will, in fact, bend toward justice.
Today, however, in this land the freedom fought for so assiduously over 150 years ago is threatened by an entire major political Party which has morphed. It has changed from the Republican Party of Lincoln standing for uniting the union with freedom for all to a Trumpian Republican Party devoted, in large part, to the top 2% richest, to white supremacy, hatred of the other, a denial of the vote to them, to others who believe differently from them and to do so by any nefarious means necessary. It is a noxious effort by those who have lost the meaning of the Declaration of Independence essence:
Today, however, in this land the freedom fought for so assiduously over 150 years ago is threatened by an entire major political Party which has morphed. It has changed from the Republican Party of Lincoln standing for uniting the union with freedom for all to a Trumpian Republican Party devoted, in large part, to the top 2% richest, to white supremacy, hatred of the other, a denial of the vote to them, to others who believe differently from them and to do so by any nefarious means necessary. It is a noxious effort by those who have lost the meaning of the Declaration of Independence essence:
We
hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness ...
Those
who fought to keep the union together and free knew the essence of the
nation's principles, that all men are created equal was its pledge and
to liberate those who did not enjoy its promise. The historicity of
Passover retold in the sedar tonight may not be literally true, as the
Charleton Heston film version of the Exodus would like you to believe it
is, but it is a story worth retelling if it can be retold with a sense
of the promise of national and global justice. The link of a new sedar
book below shows how one can keep this tradition of the retelling of the
Exodus in the most equitable and justice-infused way possible never
forgetting those who still are not free. It is entitled "Next Year in a
Just World -- A Global Justice Haggadah." Happy Passover and Easter
to all!
https://ajws.org/who-we-are/re
