I miss my big family Passovers. In my family, the three most important holidays are Passover, Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah. But the only one that held deep spiritual meaning my whole life has been Passover.
I grew up hearing the story of Exodus every year. And in case you never had the chance to celebrate Passover with a Jewish family, I want you to know that it’s not a holiday about celebrating dead Egyptians or about how awesome Jews are. It’s a truly magical experience without any pretense at the supernatural.
It is beyond genius that for thousands of years Jews have celebrated a holiday where you are told that you are present at the moment of the story. You are asked to put yourself into the shoes of a Hebrew slave. This is done through saying prayers and telling the story but also by using various foods as ritual objects to be interacted with using your senses. Salt water to represent the tears of the slaves. Matzoh (unleavened bread) to represent what the slaves ate as they escaped because they didn’t have time to wait for their bread to rise. Charoset (a mix of wine, apples, and nuts) to symbolize the mortar the slaves used to build monuments to pharaoh. Maror (bitter herbs aka horseradish) to represent the bitter tears of slavery, and on and on. It is a presentation of shapes and colors, and you eat these symbols. You dip your finger in your wine glass and make a little dab on your plate, one for each of the ten plagues. It is a way to immerse yourself in the story using all of your senses.
It is not a story that merely celebrates a Jewish victory. It is not a story of celebrating the deaths of ancient Egyptians. It is a story of justice and change and progress. But it is truly, I believe, where the thirst for justice that has been so prevalent among Jews for centuries comes from. Every year, we retell the story, and the message is always there, waiting to be heard again: until everyone is free, no one is free….
“Oh, my son. They were only slaves.”
That line from the story’s retelling in the movie Prince of Egypt is the harsh lesson we keep needing to learn. Moses was just another royal spoiled brat before he learned of his origins. Then, watching the same Hebrew slaves he had watched suffer his whole life, he suddenly saw them as equals. He suddenly saw them as suffering. He suddenly saw how he was part of the machine keeping them in bondage.
This is why the term “woke” is unhelpful and toxic. There is no final destination of woke. We are all waking up. Little by little. Piece by piece. This was a moment of Moses waking up and seeing what was right in front of his eyes all along.
The story of Moses is one of the greatest in the world. I say that not as a Jew, but as a lover of myths from around the world. And in this moment, in the crossroads we find ourselves as Americans, it might be one of the most important stories to put ourselves in. Because it’s all of our stories right now.
Right now, various Americans are living under oppression. Others are living in fear of the law, though they have done nothing wrong. Others are watching over their shoulders, waiting to deal with a confrontation with someone who means them harm because they are Black, because they are Asian, because they are Latino, because they are Jewish, because they are Arab, because they are Muslim, because they are gay, because they are lesbian, because they are transgender, because they are visibly non-binary. Because they are women of any color.
Right now, things are changing for the better, and that means that the forces of evil and ignorance and hatred are pushing back harder than in living memory for all of us who hold no memories of the years before the Civil Rights marches of the 1960’s. This is by design. This is what a system of oppression and confusion and hatred does when it realizes it is in danger of being dismantled.
Until everyone is free, no one is free.
Ask yourself who you are in the story or Exodus. Are you journeying to freedom? Are you assisting others to freedom? Are you keeping others from freedom? Are you looking the other way at those who are being beaten by the taskmasters? Are you the silent Egyptian who says nothing? In the end, does the reason behind your silence really mean anything at all?
May we run through this moldy prison, breaking locks, opening doors, letting the sunshine in.
Freedom isn’t the ability to purchase particular goods or say awful things to your neighbor. Freedom is only two things: 1. a place in your mind where no one can harm you, untouched or unshackled by the poisonous delusions of your society, and 2. The ability to move through your world, unharmed emotionally and physically and financially when you are playing by the same rules as everyone else, instead of living under unearned scrutiny and the harshest of penalties for violating unseen codes that only apply to you.
We are all Moses, waking up to the horrors we have been blind to. We are all Moses, awake for quite some time, trying to lead slaves to freedom. We are all the Hebrews, frightened and confused and trapped in a story far greater than our understanding.
Otherwise, we are the taskmaster, or Moses looking on at the taskmaster, undisturbed and carefree. In the end, these roles are not different from each other enough to matter. They are the same.
Until everyone is free, no one is free.
Post-Script: If you are not Jewish, you should not be celebrating Passover unless it is at a Jewish person’s house with their family. An even bigger affront is holding a Seder as a Christian and putting Christ anywhere into the Passover story or ritual. It is not a holiday about Christ at all. Inserting Him into Passover is deeply hurtful and insulting to Jews. Please be respectful about this. Imagine Muslims celebrating Easter and saying that Easter is ultimately about the coming of Muhammad, then when confronted saying that Jesus is important to Muslims too. Muslims don’t do that. Please follow their lead.