I want to wish you all Chag Pesach Sameach - a good and meaningful Passover.
We are obligated to pull meaning from this holiday - and we must consider whatever narrow place that Egypt represents for us in our day.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel dared to declare in 1963 that the contest between Moses and Pharaoh which began in that mythical Egypt had still not ended, but was being carried on between those who struggled for civil rights in America and those who resisted those rights. For us, we must consider where the struggles are now. The piece below is written by my colleague and friend Rabbi Igor Zinkov for the Four children of your Seder, reflecting on the war in Ukraine and the suffering that has ensued. I remind you also of that most poignant of verses deep in the Haggadah in Hallel’s psalm 118:
.מִן-הַמֵּצַר, קָרָאתִי יָּהּ; עָנָנִי בַמֶּרְחָב יָהּ
From a narrow place I called to God and I was answered with wide expansiveness.
Communally and personally the story of liberation cannot fail to resonate.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
