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Jewish Life & Celebrations

Passover

The Season of Our Liberation

Bennett Muraskin, Judith Seid and Lawrence Schofer
This article appeared in Celebrating Jewish Holidays: An Introduction for Secular Jewish Families and their Communities, published by the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations.

Pesach/Passover – “the Season of Our Liberation” and the original new year festival – is truly the most important holiday for the Jewish people. Because of its message of freedom, it is also the most universal. In the United States, prior to the Civil War, slaves created the moving spiritual “Go Down Moses” precisely because they saw their experience through the lens of the Exodus story. Harriet Tubman, the fugitive slave and abolitionists who brought over 300 slaves to freedom in the 1850s, was nicknamed “Moses.”

There is no firm historical basis to the Exodus story, but the recurrent message in the Torah that Jews should not oppress the stranger, because we were strangers in the land of Egypt, should be central to our identity as a people. It is in this spirit of human solidarity that we may use the seder as an opportunity to make connections to the liberation struggles of other people, and invite non-Jews to share in the celebration.

Pesach can also be a good occasion to remind ourselves of other exoduses that have brought greater freedom to Jews, among them the mass immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe to North America between the 1880s and 1920s, from Arab lands to Israel in the 1950s and 60s and from the Soviet Union to Israel since the 1970s. We can do this, while at the same time recognizing that Jewish immigration to Israel took place at the expense of the Arab population, and that the Palestinians also have the right to independence and freedom in their own state, alongside Israel.

Among secular Jews, the most powerful extension of Pesach is the commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which was deliberately timed to coincide with the first night of Pesach, on April 19, 1943. We tell the story of the young Jewish rebels, the remnants of the huge pre-war Jewish population of Poland, led by a coalition of left-wing Zionists, Bundists and communists trapped in the ghetto, waiting for their turn to be exterminated. They rose up against the Nazis without any hope for success, but as an act of defiance and an affirmation of their human and Jewish dignity. With few weapons and little outside assistance, these freedom-fighters held off the Nazis for over a month, in house to house contact. The Nazis, who never expected such resistance from Jews, resorted to heavy artillery, aerial bombardment and igniting fires in the ghetto to crush the revolt.

Secular Jews were the first to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. On its second anniversary, the Jewish Labor Committee, a coalition of Jewish socialist unions, the Yiddish daily newspaper, the Forward and the fraternal order, Der Arbeter Ring (The Workmen’s Circle) presented an exhibit in New York City, entitled “Heroes and Martyrs of the Ghetto.” The Jewish communists, in its folkshuln (schools) and institutions were not far behind. Ever since, honoring that historic uprising and other cases of Jewish resistance to the Nazis has been an integral part of our secular Jewish culture. Due to our persistent efforts, the rest of the Jewish community has gradually begun to incorporate the commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (and the song, Zog Nit Keynmol) in their seders and Yom Ha’Shoah events.

Although the escape from slavery in Egypt is considered the symbolic beginning of the Jewish people, leading to the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, Pesach has primitive origins that pre-date its national or religious significance. The word pesach refers to a shepherd’s festival that involved the sacrifice of a lamb and the smearing of its blood on doorposts of tents, as a sign of tribal kinship. The presence of a lamb shank on the seder plate is a symbol of this ancient ritual. The eating of matzo probably comes from a farmer’s festival celebrating the early grain harvest. The seasonal aspect of the holiday is still evident today. The greens and egg on the seder plate have obvious associations with spring and fertility. Only later, in the Second Temple period beginning in the 6th century BCE, was the Exodus story included in the holiday. Conveniently the word pesach also means skip, so the priests could say that it referred to the Angel of Death (malakhamovis) that “passed over” the homes of the Hebrew slaves as it wreaked vengeance against the Egyptian first-born.

Although not widely appreciated, Pesach also has an erotic side. The Song of Songs is read in synagogue to coincide with Pesach. The rabbis said that it is all about the Jewish people’s love for God, but its real meaning is unmistakable. It is exquisite love poetry that gives equal voice to male and female sexuality. There is no other book like it in the entire Bible, and one that should be incorporated into our practice.

The Exodus story has its dark side as well. According to the Torah, it is God’s will that Jews should suffer as slaves in Egypt for 400 years. When God finally gets around to liberating them, He insists on punishing not just Pharaoh and his agents, but all Egyptians with ten nasty plagues. However, after the first few plagues, Pharaoh is willing to give up and let the Jews go. So what does God do? He goes out of His way to “harden Pharaoh’s heart,” just so He can prove what an awesome force He is by inflicting more spectacular punishments. The last plague – the death of all first-born Egyptians – explicitly includes “the first-born of the slave-girl” and “the captive who is in the dungeon.” (Exodus 11.2, 12.29). This utter disregard for the oppressed and abused among non-Jews is especially disturbing. Rather than pretend that these obnoxious passages do not exist, we must explain them as a product of their times, and insure that our commitment to freedom and justice extends to all people.

Pesach is a holiday rich in ceremony, symbols and song, from the four questions (fir kashes), to the four cups of wine, to the welcoming of Elyohu ha-novi (Elijah the Prophet), the singing of Dayenu and Chad Gadyo, and the search for the afikoymen (middle matzah). Many of those elements were introduced over time, reflecting the evolutionary nature of Jewish culture.

Modern innovations, such as the introduction of African-American spirituals and freedom songs, honoring the fighters and martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto, placing an orange on the seder plate, and recognizing that the Palestinians also have a right to be free, are all part of an ongoing process of change that can only strengthen Jews as a people. The role of secular Jews in the development of Pesach is one we can be proud of.

Traditional seders end with the call: “Next year in Jerusalem.” Using the seder to discuss the significance of this invocation, and to perhaps develop alternatives more relevant to our lives in the Diaspora, or to our concerns for a just peace for both Israel and the Palestinians, would be in keeping with this spirit.

To purchase this publication, please contact the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations at www.csjo.org

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