March  2010

The Three Spiritual Spheres of Passover

by Rabbi Isaac Jeret

Approximately one month from now, Jews the world over will celebrate the Festival of Passover. This sacred Jewish holiday commemorates the liberation of the Jewish People of the Biblical era from Egyptian bondage. The story of their enslavement and of their ensuing miraculous redemption is related in the Biblical book of Exodus and has served ever since to define essential elements of the values and strivings of the Jewish community. The sacred Jewish master-story of Passover provides, as well, an important foundation for Judaism's ethical concerns. The place of this story is so significant to Jews and Judaism that, at the Passover Seders, the festive and ritualized meals of the first evenings of the festival, participants read in the Haggadah – the ritual and study guidebook for the Seder – that all who engage in the retelling of this sacred-story of the Jewish People, seeking its deepest and most profound meanings and implications, are to be praised for doing so. In other words, the wisdom imbedded in this sacred Jewish master-story is central, at the very least, to Jewish life.

So, what is the ultimate meaning of the Passover story and the rituals associated with its retelling? The story of Passover can be understood within at least three spheres of meaning and purpose, each of which must be considered if one is to engage Passover as the significant spiritual opportunity that it represents. Passover is a universal master-story of humanity's quest to seek liberty and to liberate those in need of it. Passover is the very particular story of the Jewish People’s transition from slaves at Pharaoh's whim to servants of Divine Will. Passover is, as well, an enduring metaphor for personal liberation.

Universally, Passover is a story about the value of human dignity and the importance of freedom. Within this sphere, the essential message of Passover is that no nation, race, or ethnicity can oppress another without eventual consequence and that every oppressed people can and must be liberated. Passover reminds humanity that the indignities and perversions of subjugation, torture, and genocide are unnatural conditions that demand swift and determined response on the part of anyone who is even remotely in position to offer aid. After all, if God could descend from the heavens to liberate the ancient Israelites, then surely we can travel but a continent or two to save the lives of our fellow human beings. True, this message is one which influences and defines profoundly many of the norms and values of Jewish tradition, but, it is also assumed as an important theme in the sacred texts of the other great religions of Western Civilization, Christianity and Islam.

The uniquely Jewish message of Passover centers less around the value of freedom itself and more around the purpose of freedom, as defined in the Book of Exodus. Pharaoh is instructed repeatedly by God through Moses, "Send forth My People that they may serve Me!" Judaism regulates and institutionalizes the service of Divine Will. Jews are intended to strive toward a world in which liberation would no longer be necessary. Judaism offers a spiritual discipline that intends for its adherents to cultivate a personality that disdains the very possibility of subjugating others. The starting point for such service is that all Jews must have opportunity to choose their Jewish participation, acting as free people in the absence of persecution or coercion themselves, a condition that has rarely existed over the last two thousand years. Once free to choose, as is largely the case in our era, the reason that so many Jews assume involvement in causes of Social Action and Social Justice is that Judaism not only encourages Jews to act as liberators but actually expects and even demands this of us and inspires its adherents toward the fulfillment of this obligation through its rituals, its sacred narratives, and its approach to worship. As Jews, serving God's Will means ultimately that we are to aim toward a spiritual transformation of the most practical consequence; our tradition aims to achieve a universal liberation so comprehensive for all humanity -- a healed world --that Passover would become but a commemoration of how far we have all journeyed together, having eliminated the need for liberation itself!

Most personally, each of us faces internal struggles and conflicts, or those with loved ones or others close to us, that we must overcome. Passover reminds us that, even in our darkest hour, we are not alone. God walks with us, yet God's miraculous strength, embedded within us and ever about us, can only become manifest if we choose to serve as our own personal Moses. The Hasidic tradition within Judaism imagines that every human being must travel through difficult, narrow straits so as to achieve open expanses. It is the very choice to live and to love that splits the seas that stand in our way, and it is the work of living and loving that liberates us toward a sacred existence that can define for each of us a purpose that brings ultimate meaning to personal freedom.

B'Shalom - With Blessings of Peace and Wholeness,

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader