MY SAY: WHEREFORE IS THIS SEDER DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS SEDERS?
“Remember this day, in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength the hand of the Lord brought you out from this place. Exodus 13:3
On Friday evening, at sundown, millennia after our redemption from slavery in Egypt, my family will gather around the Seder table.
We will retell the rescue by Moses who demanded freedom for our people. We will recount how the Pharaoh sent an army to capture the Jews who were escaping and how a miracle parted the Red Sea for the Jews and returned a tide to drown the pursuing army.
We will celebrate the return of the Jews to Israel in 1948 when the seas and the clouds parted for the steel hulls of ships and airplanes that brought the besieged and beleaguered and traumatized survivors of the Genocide of World War II and the oppression of tyrants in Arab nations to safety and succor in the Jewish state of Israel.
Then, we will have a moment of silent prayer in memory of the martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto who courageously rebelled on Passover on April 19th, 1943 and held off the well-armed Nazis for over a month.
We will bless America this wonderful corner of the earth where we can celebrate our holidays in tranquility as proud and patriotic citizens.
But, wherefore will this Seder night be different than all other Seder nights?
There is a foreboding…an anxiety…over the increasing anti-Semitism growing in academia, in the media, and now, lurking in the corridors of legislative power.
So this year our Seder will end with the words of Deuteronomy 20:1
“When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” Amen!
This year Passover coincides with Easter. May our respective Holidays bring us better days and peace.
RSK
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