Rituals

As a student of the Hebrew Bible, I am fascinated by the rituals that are prescribed in it, particularly sacrifice.  Tonight, before sundown, we  are commanded to sacrifice the Passover lamb and must eat it all before sunrise.  We do not have the second day to eat the sacrifice, as it is with the other sacrifices.  It is in memory of the blood that protected the people of Israel from the angel of death.  The blood did not have magical powers.  It was not the blood that kept the angel of death at bay.  It was a sign of their belief and devotion.  

I have always wondered why people in the ancient world offered sacrifices to their deities.  But that is for another time.  We do not have a temple, so we do not sacrifice.  We acknowledge the sacrifice through symbols of it.  The symbols are meant to take us through time travel.  We are going back in time.  We think of slavery, and how we are fortunate that we are not slaves.  It helps us cherish freedom.

The United States, since its formation, has given Jews equal civil freedoms.  One of the tenets of the rabbis is to seek and work for the welfare of the state as along as it is just.  America has been just, and the Jews for the most part have been law-abiding.  This is not to say that there is not and has not been anti-Semitism in America.  I believe that as long as there are Jews, there will be anti-Semitism.  It is a fact that I wish I could. change, but I don't think I can.  

Before the United States existed,  Jews in western Europe were aliens wherever they lived.  Napoleon made the Jews citizens.  That meant they had the right to live under the law and prosper.  The more the Jews prospered, the stronger resentment.  The Jews as a separate race added to the older Christian anti-Semitism, and that led to the Holocaust.  

The government of the United States has always stood against anti-Semitism.  It is constitutionally obligated to do so.  So I believe, and want to continue to belief that I am protected as every other citizen.  For over 200 years, racial prejudice, which existed on the local level of law enforcement, has been declared illegal.  I feel safe here.

So, as part of the Sedar, we not only remember what is was like to be a slave, we also realize and appreciate our freedom.  We know we are lucky to have the privilege of living here.  I think that we will go from this Passover, I journey to our past, to next Passover in peace, both for us and the world, prosperity, may we all have what we need, and most importantly, love.

We spend the Sedar with the people we love.  That is what makes it special.