SPIRITUAL PREPARATION FOR THE SEDER

SPIRITUAL PREPARATION FOR THE SEDER

The most straightforward description of Passover is the oldest: “And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ You shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, Who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when God smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’”  (Exodus 12:26-27)

You are not asked to tell the history, but to tell the story.  The difference – history is dispassionate, the Egyptians could relate the same account of these events.  But story is personal and requires you to remember who you are, where you were, and what it felt like.  To tell the story fully you need to be passionate; to explore your spiritual and emotional self. 

There is a second task implied in the command to tell your children our story.  You also are directed to prepare your children so they will be able to pass the story on to their children.  In this way you play the crucial role in preserving for all generations our founding narrative of how we were slaves to Pharaoh and God saved us with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.

I believe that the Haggadah offers you the privilege of telling your story.  You don’t recall being a slave?  So let me ask some leading questions to help you tap into your imagination so you can create a spiritual link from your 21^st century life to the experience of our people’s enslavement in and exodus from Egypt.  Perhaps as you go though the seder you can share some of your reactions.

What did it feel like to be a slave?  The Haggadah reminds us that we were degraded with harsh labor that broke both our backs and our spirit.  Tell about your feelings as you suffered both in body and soul.

Could you believe that help was on the way?  Even before the beginning of the plagues word must have filtered through the Jewish community – Moses speaks for us!  God demands: Let My people go!  Tell about how you reacted to such news.  Were you among the believers or the doubters?  Did you ever speak to the Egyptians as the rumors of freedom grew?

Where were you in the march out of Egypt – at the head of the line, the middle or the rear?  What did you say to the people around you, to your children? 

When you stepped onto the firm dry ground of the Red Sea, seeing the waters held back on both sides, what did you say?  Did you understand that a miracle was taking place and you were in the middle of it?  What words could express that moment?

What did it feel like when the waters of the sea closed behind you and you realized both that you were finally and completely free of the Egyptians, and that you did not really know where you were headed?

These questions offer a start to telling your own portion of this ancient story. The challenge is not simply to read the Haggadah, but to find within its pages your spiritual story, the one that connects you to the People Israel.  We speak tonight of oppression and redemption in the past, and consider it a prelude to redemption in the future.  We hope tonight for the time when everyone will climb the Holy mountain, and God’s house will be a house of prayer for all people’s. (Isaiah 56:7)