Pesach 2024
The Gem of Judaism is Liberation
Before I begin, I invoke the ancestors of my Yudka line. I ask them to walk with me through this Torah, and hold it with me.
Baruch HaShem for the Ancestors.
….
Tonight begins my favorite Jewish festival, Pesach — or Passover — when we commemorate the fleeing and deliverance of our people from empire and oppression into the freedom of Liberation.
The center of gravity in Judaism, for me, that spins the entire tradition around this axis, appears during the Pesach Seder. It is a small moment, and it is the deepest, richest Torah of our tradition. The sacred gem appears, and descends, elevating the guests of honor at the Seder table.
And it isn’t us.
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During the recitation of the Haggadah, we drink wine. We spill wine. It is in this emptying that the elevation happens. We honor the suffering of the Egyptians, as they too are children of G-d, and our liberation came at their expense. We hold the paradox of raging grief and deep Love.
We hold Moses. Caught between brother and self. The story of Us.
In him, the sea was split first. The river ran red. The gift and the weight.
To be both Egyptian and Israelite. To be both the infliction and the afflicted. The wine enters in the paradox, and washes the room in memory. Remembrance.
The voice of I Am enters:
You are all of it, Beloved one. And I will sit with you until you understand that. Until you understand, that you are me and I am you.
Amen.
….
It is 2024, and the grief of the world is echoing deeper and higher. Stretching us all to bare witness to the history of the weapons of empire, colonization, slavery, harm, oppression, genocide, and destruction. We are all being asked to stretch, in prayer, between what is most sacred and most profane about us all, and dance in the holiness of ourselves. Each other.
Here, in this liminal and sacred space, the sea splits. The Ancestors come and walk with us all, into the new world. Which is an old one. Which is the only one. The great I Am. Liberation. Our Mother.
Amen.
….
Chag Pesach Sameach.
Today. Now. Here. In Liberation.
Now and forever always.
Amen.
