Hear Our Voice

Tonight we celebrate the Exodus from Egypt. For thousands of years, Jews have been celebrating this moment that sets the trajectory for the Jewish people. It’s hard to really tell the chicken from the egg in this case. Have we made the ritual of remembering slavery a bug or a feature of Jewish life? It’s certainly hard to know. 

Our history of miraculous survival is only miraculous because so many forces so many times have risen up to try to eliminate us, and most particularly our way of envisioning life.  I do not at all mean to suggest that there is any kind of monolithic understanding of life in Jewish tradition, except to speak for our absolute obsession with life itself, and all that it entails. We are a tradition that embraces every part of life from birth to death, including our bodies, including our desires, our yearnings, and recognizing that it is through them that we  are made holy. We are a tradition that demands that God’s creation has a logic to it and that our wiring is not at all intended to trip us up and make it all the more challenging to live lives of holiness. 

But I suspect it is our absolute commitment that there is nothing above God, that has really angered our enemies. It’s kind of all summed up in that singular moment when Mordechai refuses to bow before Haman.  It is both the most revolutionary act he can muster, and as we know, the most threatening that Haman can imagine.  The chutzpah, saying that he will not bow down is perhaps the most Jewish act there is. That our very divinely inspired creation cannot be undermined, that it cannot be uprooted, that it stands on its own without asking for permission from any earthly entity, and this has pissed off pharaohs and kings, presidents, and pontiffs for centuries. And it has gotten us into a lot of trouble. As we look at anti-Semitism in the face today, I believe there is no good reason and every good reason why our enemies can become so incensed with us. It is not because of some secret blood disorder within us. It is not because we will bring down governments and institutions. And it is not because we tell the best jokes!  It is simply because we will not accede to the philosophical demands of those more powerful and who would insist that we do. 

There is nothing above God, and God has made it clear with by the voluminous vibrancy of God’s creation that there is no room for one philosophical understanding of life, death, and the divine.  This is actually what we Jews have stood for, for centuries, and despite our current troubles, will continue l’olam va-ed (forever and ever).

May your Passover Seder inspire you to throw off the Pharaohs of your life, to rush out of the Egypts that keep you stuck, and to yearn for the promised lands inviting you into the fullness of your self and your life.

With love, 

Rabbi Scott