“Our current leaders’ indifference to this existential threat as well as the spurning of core American beliefs and values are endangering our children’s future and undermining our very existence as the land of freedom and opportunity.”
The Jewish holiday of Passover is now being celebrated around the world. The Haggadah is the guidebook that helps Jews understand the circumstances of slavery while they grapple with profound questions and ideas that animate the holiday.
Because questions are vital to the understanding of Passover, rabbis of old would create commentaries on the Hebrew Scriptures. These are known as midrash. In its broadest sense, a midrash is an interpretation or interweaving of Jewish historical events in order to see a larger picture. A midrash can span very different time periods, yet ultimately there is a logic to be found as Jews seek to understand G-d’s intentions.
Centered on the liberation of the Jews from the cruel hands of Pharoah, the holiday examines how G-d helped the Jewish people through their tribulations. Indeed, Pharoah had issued an edict that ordered that all Israelite male children be murdered by being drowned at birth. It is clearly stated in Exodus 1:22 that “every boy that is born, you shall throw into the river and every girl you shall keep alive”
