Next Shabbat is Pesach. On Pesach, we read from Parsha Bo in Exodus and Pinchas in Numbers. It’s an integral part of our story as Jews, the journey out of Mitzrayim to become who we are today. We tell of the Passover, of packing and leaving even before the bread has leavened, and we teach the story to our children, making it our own.
Our story is an expansive one. Tova Lebovic-Douglas in her article on Bo points out that in Exodus 12:38 “And there was a mixed multitude who went up with them.” What is a mixed multitude? Rashi says it’s a mixture of converts of different nationalities. Some suggest it includes Egyptians who chose to follow them. As our people move into the desert, we see the formulation of laws governing the people, and we are called to embrace the ger, a word which can mean either convert or stranger, for we were once strangers in Mitzrayim. Some were converts, but others simply fellow travelers on this journey of liberation.
Back to the Parsha, Moshe teaches in 12:26-7, “And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ you shall say ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, because he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’” Two other times the instruction is repeated for the people Israel. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory points out how counterintuitive for Moshe to speak not of today or tomorrow, but of the distant future. His words speak to us today as then. We are called to teach the story to our children, encourage them to ask questions. In that way it’s not a matter of rote learning, but rather active dialogue between parents and children. It was a revolutionary act in so many ways. Other societies built their huge buildings, but we built schools. We educate and tell our stories, remembering where we came from. We survived when other civilizations fell into ruin. We teach our children the importance of justice, righteousness, kindness and compassion. We gather here as a caring committee today, acting upon those very values.
Indeed, we found with Moshe, visionary leadership upon which the formation of the text and texture of Judaism is found. It states succinctly in Proverbs 29:18, “Without a vision, the people perish.”
We tell the story and make it our own. We tell our stories and remember the history of our people. I confess as a writer, historian, and storyteller; I love this aspect of being Jewish. As we tell our stories this Pesach, I can’t help but reflect on the last few years. A worldwide pandemic that has affected so many of us and yet in many cases, brought out the very best of us, through cards and meals, front line workers risking so much to bring the services that keep us going as a civilization. Of gathering to sit shiva, to mourn those who have passed and to comfort those who lost a loved one. Of the people of Ukraine in this cruel war against them. I imagine what it must have been like for Moshe, to lead the people, twelve tribes, from the young to the very old. What of the very old, unable to walk much like me? And the children who could not keep up or not yet able to walk? Did they carry them over their shoulders or on makeshift carts in much the way I saw the refugees similarly being carried out of war-torn Ukraine?
When I tell the story, it did happen, and it was this call to compassion that prevailed, then and over the centuries. It is what brings us here today. We care for each other, and we tell the story, essential for a moral life. It is what forms who we are today, our identity. Referring to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once more, “Identity which is always particular, is based on a story, the narrative that links me to the past, guides me in the present, and places on me responsibility for the future.” In fact, there is no more powerful memory than the one in Exodus. So today, centuries after the fact, we gather to tell our story this weekend.
Am Israel chai. Pesach sameach!
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