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Pesach 2002
USY,
The Seder, today, is the most celebrated of Jewish rituals, so widespread
that we find "variety seders" popping up everywhere. Interfaith, interacial,
even "Free Tibet!" seders have become a commonplace in Jewish culture. Why
did they choose a seder? Because any people who seeks unity and redemption
captivity, bondage or anything of that sort, requires a chance to remind
themselves of the time when our people were slaves, and of our eventual
redemption. As we say each Seder, "Ba-avur zeh, asah God li, b-tze-ti mi-mitzrayim,
li v-lo lo" we celebrate Pesach ("Because of what the Eternal did for me
when I came from Egypt").
For this Pesach, I would like to share one such variety seder; "the Peace
Seder." The seder celebrates the bond that is held between "bnei Yitzchak"
and "bnei Yishmael," Jews and Arabs, as well as take stock of all the subjugated
people's across the world, and of their need for freedom.
The seder, during the Maggid, presents the following question (with two
of its four teachings presented here):
Question: Why are we Jews asked, year after year on Rosh Hashanah, to
read the story of Hagar and Yishmael? Cherie Brown, a counselor and builder
who lives in Washington, D.C., teaches Four Teachings:
The third teaching: When we refuse to respond to the cry of Hagar,
the cry of the stranger, when we only focus on our own worries and concerns
and fail to hear the cry of our brother, our sister -- we condemn ourselves
to living desperate lives, cut off from our own humanity.
God heard the cry of Hagar and Yishmael. Are we not meant to follow
God's lead?
And the fourth teaching, for me the most important: We are being asked
Rosh Hashanah to stop seeing ourselves always as the victim, and to living
a life based on victimization.
After all, it was not Yitzchak who was forced to wander in the desert.
It was Hagar and Yishmael. If the teachers of Torah wanted us to focus on
our own history of victimization on this most important day [of Rosh Hashanah]
(and God knows there are enough examples from our history to draw on) wouldn't
we have a different passage to listen to?
The Pesach Seder speaks of bondage and redemption and the bitter and the
sweet, reminding us of the days in which we were slaves, and of our divinely
guided freedom. Yet while the Seder is about us, it is not about us at the
same time. Each year we say, "Kol dich-feen yay-tay v-yachul, kol ditz-rich
yay-tay v-yifsach" (All who are hungry let them come and eat. All who are
needy-let them come and celebrate this Pesach with us). We say that all
people, not just the Jewish people, who are in need can join us, for on
these nights we remind ourselves of our former bondage, in order to make
the assurance that no one else should experience it now or in the future.
This Pesach, we owe it to ourselves to reach out to our own kahal, especially
to our people during this trying year in Eretz Yisrael as well as Jews in
need through the world. Yet at the same time, we must not forget that across
the world, other peoples need our help as well, whether it be in slavery,
poverty, or even abuse around our front door. If we are too ignore those
in need, those who need to be freed from their own bondage, to not live
the most important of ideals, that of tikun olam, did we really learn anything
from this Pesach seder?
I wish you all a hearty chag sameach to both you and your families. As
always, feel free to always email me at jsrabin@erols.com
or IM me at BigRabe02.
For text of the "Peace Seder," go to http://www.shalomctr.org/html/peace01.html.
Chag Sameach,
Joshua Scott Rabin
USY Religion/Education Vice President
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