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Jewish Life & Celebrations

Passover

The Pesach Story - Escaping Oppression

Rabbi Judith Seid
Rabbi Seid describes the symbolic components that make up the holiday. Rabbi Seid is the author of We Rejoice in Our Heritage: Home Rituals for Secular and Humanistic Jews, and God-Optional Judaism: Alternatives for Cultural Jews who Love Their History, Heritage, and Community. Rabbi Seid is also the cultural leader at Tri-Valley Cultural Jews in Pleasanton, California. Visit Rabbi Seid at www.SecularJewishWeddings.com

Judith Seid, God-Optional Judaism, Citadel Press, 2001, pp 107-108.

Pesach is rich in symbolism and meaning, having all six of the holiday components: primitive, seasonal, religious, national, historical, and ethical. Its earliest roots are in the ancient New Year. While the fall is the most important time for agriculture in the Middle East, spring is the most important time for both herding and hunter-gatherer societies. Spring is when the food begins to appear again and when the lambs are born. By the time the Bible was written down, spring was no longer the political New Year; that had shifted to fall. But at that time, the first month of the year was still the spring month in which Pesach occurs, so Rosh Hashana is said to be in the seventh month. We still often list the Jewish months starting in Nisan.

The seasonal significance is tied to the primitive. It is most clearly seen on the seder plate, with its greens and egg symbolizing the waking of the world and the new life of spring. The shank bone of the lamb is also a springtime element, as lambs are available only in the spring.

“How do you do Pesach without God?” the university students who sometimes teach at Ann Arbor’s Jewish Cultural school used to ask me.

I’d always answer, “I can’t figure out how they put God into the story.” The central myth of our national identity, the leaving of Egypt, was told for centuries not as a story about people rising up and leaving oppression, but about the acts of a supernatural god who deliberately allowed his people to be enslaved, who caused miracles, and who hardened the heart of the pharaoh. This is meant to show the power of the Hebrew god, one who can control not only events in his own territory, as was typical of primitive gods, but events all over the world and people who didn’t even know he was a god. How much more inspiring is the human story, the story of a man who sparked a slave’s rebellion, the story of a people who organized themselves to escape oppression.

The historical component is the escape from slavery in Egypt. This event is largely mythical, but there is historical evidence that Semites did enter and rule in Egypt for about two hundred and fifty years, after which they were overthrown. There were undoubtedly Semites left in Egypt after the overthrow (although one has to assume there was a great deal of mixing during such a long period of time). One theory holds that a small number of them did leave Egypt and became the Levites, who entered the land of Israel quite late in the conquest, and gradually made their way northward. They were worshipers of the mountain god YHVH and brought the worship of YHVH to Israel, where he eventually became the god of the Jews. Although the Hebrews who left Egypt were a small number, and if enslaved, were certainly not enslaved in the way we think of it – they left Egypt with their herds of cattle and their gold and jewelry! – their exodus from Egypt has become the central myth of our national story. Although they were probably only a small part of the Jewish people, their story belongs to all of us, as do the stories of all the Jewish people everywhere.

Though the events told in the Pesach story are not historically accurate, we do have truly historical events that occurred on Pesach. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on Pesach and has become a powerful symbol of Jewish defiance in the face of overwhelming odds. Just as the Hebrews of the Pesach story were pursued by a large and powerful band of soldiers, so were the starved few left in the ghetto faced with a huge and powerful army. Surely the mythical escape of the Hebrews was inspiring to the young secular socialists who led the uprising against Hitler’s overwhelming forces.

The ethical component is complex and involves the necessity of organizing response to tyranny, remembering history lest it be repeated, and recognizing that others throughout the world are enslaved and oppressed. A further ethical element is contained in the story: Joseph was welcomed by the pharaoh who ruled in his time. Later a non-Semitic tribe, the ancestors of the modern Egyptians, invaded and took over Egypt. It was the pharaoh of this group who “knew not Joseph” and enslaved the Hebrews. Pesach seems, therefore, a time to dwell on race relations as well as on the struggle against oppression.

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