Four Questions for Passover
Dear Bet Shalom Members,
In just a few days, we will join together with family or friends to retell the ancient story of our people’s redemption. The Passover Seder is one of the most celebrated rituals by Jews around the world, in large part because it takes place around a dinner table. Instead of coming to a sanctuary, we sit in a tight circle, tell stories, ask questions, and eat food.
Asking questions is a central part of the experience and a central part of being Jewish. Why is this night different from every other night? What does this holiday mean (to you)? So, in the spirit of asking questions, and considering questions we didn’t even think to ask, I want to share four of the questions that have been on my mind this year. Some are practical and others more existential. Some are questions you all have asked me in recent weeks, and others are ones I’ve been wrestling with myself, questions that have been keeping me up at night as we approach this holiday.
I hope that posing these questions and sharing my take on them will bring food for thought to your Seder table this week. Wishing you all a chag sameach, a joyous and meaningful holiday!
Rabbi Crimmings
What happens when Passover begins on Shabbat?
Due to the lunar component of the Hebrew calendar it is quite common for major Jewish holidays to fall on Shabbat. When this happens, the holiday takes the lead role and Shabbat rituals are integrated into the celebration of whatever the holiday may be. For example, when we light the candles, we add “shel shabbat” in addition to “shel yom tov” at the end of the blessing (this addition will be in your haggadah, don’t worry!).
At Bet Shalom, our practice when Passover begins on a Friday evening is to only hold worship services on Saturday morning. We will gather together over Zoom only at 10:00 am for services and will hold our community second night seder in the evening at Bet Shalom. We are excited so many of you will be joining us for a Sefardi style seder! If you are still looking for a seder for Friday night, please let us know so we can try to help connect you with someone who has an extra seat at their table.
What exactly can I eat? Is rice okay? What if I don’t keep Kosher the rest of the year?
There is no universal approach to kashrut in the Reform movement, both generally and during Passover. As Reform Jews we are encouraged to think critically about what it means to eat with intention and we are given the autonomy to decide what the laws mean for us today, and how we can integrate tradition in a meaningful way. Some Reform Jews find meaning in a strict adherence to Jewish law while others connect in different ways.
In recent years, the Reform movement embraced the eating of rice and kitniyot, a category of food that was prohibited years ago by the Ashkenazi Orthodox Rabbinate because of a concern that it resembles chametz, even though it is not. The rabbis determined that though some may still make the choice to avoid these items for the sake of tradition, they do not actually fall under the category of “chametz” as they are not actually leavened foods and are therefore permitted. Click here to read a CCAR Responsa on this topic for a deeper dive.
My personal practice on Passover is to avoid bread and overt leavened products but I do not look for a stamp of approval for the rabbanut. I trust my instincts and have found that the experience of eating differently helps direct my attention to the meaning of the holiday. Every time I eat matzah, I am reminded of the story of affliction. Every time I remember that I can’t eat that bagel or that cookie, I try to remember to offer gratitude for my freedom, for the ease at which I typically grab whatever food I happen to want to eat, and recognize how many people around the world lack this opportunity.
Is the “hardening of hearts” just part of the human experience and is there anything we can do to prevent our world leaders from having their hearts hardened?
I’ve been struggling recently with why God continued to harden Pharaoh’s heart after each plague. Why did there need to be such extreme suffering in order for redemption to take place? Wouldn’t it have been enough only to have the plague of blood, or frogs, or lice? It is difficult not to look around at the world and lament at the level of suffering. It can feel like everywhere we turn another person in power has hardened their heart to the suffering of the people who live in their midst.
I believe that our Torah stories can help us wade through the challenges we face today so when I see the hardening of hearts of current leaders around the world, it makes me think about Pharoah, and why he continued to dig in, even until the very end when he changes his mind and pursues the Israelites after letting them go.
What lesson does this leave us with? In one way, the story is a tragedy. It reminds us that we all have our hearts hardened from time to time and that from time to time, there will be leaders on the world stage who govern with a hardened heart. Leaders who cannot be moved to change and so the only option for survival is to resist, escape, and bring the leader, and even the structure of leadership, down. Seen in another way, the story is a warning. It is a warning of how bad things can go if we don’t build a structure of leadership that lifts up those with empathy and compassion and never allows a leader whose heart is hardened to exert power. Unfortunately we’ve seen this happen so many times since the story of the Exodus and we continue to see it occurring today.
My prayer, this Passover, is that we consider how this story might inspire us to stand up to leaders whose hearts have been hardened and also how we can better create structures of governance that avoid a person with a hardened heart entering leadership in the first place.
What does it mean to attach oneself to a story and take it on? Is the Passover story really ours alone?
On Passover we are taught that we should each see ourselves as having personally gone through Egypt. The rabbis want us to be close to the story, to see it as our own, even when it is generations removed. When we say “our” ancestors we recognize that the actual lineage is beyond tracing; and for so many of us who have non-Jewish parents, grandparents, and beyond the question is less about blood relatives than it is about connection we feel to a people who passed down traditions that we now take on as our own.
When we see ourselves in relationship with the Israelites, their story becomes our own, regardless of how the generations unfolded since the biblical period.
Anyone, Jewish or not, can find meaning in the Passover story. It is a compelling narrative that inspires us to continue working toward freedom in the face of oppression. To experience Passover as a Jewish family is to be able to walk away with the feeling that we personally lived through Egypt. The Hebrew word for Egypt is Mitzrayim, which means narrow place. What narrow place are you escaping this year, and what does your redemption look like?