There was an extra guest at this year’s seder: the elephant in the room was not Elijah (who came and went, unseen, as always) but rather Benjamin Netanyahu, whose specter hung over us all, a Marley’s Ghost for the vernal equinox. At the start, and before we formally began the service, our leader asked us to think about the crisis in Gaza and encouraged us to ask any questions — any at all. I am not sure what to make of the fact that none were voiced: was everyone in agreement (whatever that might mean)? Perhaps people did not want to cast a further pall over the occasion, usually one of joy and celebration.
Whatever the reason, Gaza and Israel cannot have been far from anyone’s thoughts. The Haggadah tells the story of Exodus; it recounts a people’s struggle for freedom from slavery and oppression — in just those words. And more:
We have dedicated this festival tonight to the dream and the hope of freedom, the dream and the hope that have filled the hearts of men from the time our Israelite ancestors went forth out of Egypt. People have suffered, nations have struggled to make this dream come true. Now we dedicate ourselves to the struggle for freedom. Though the sacrifice be great and the hardships many, we shall not rest until the chains that enslave all men be broken.
So far so good; or maybe a little close to home, this year. It goes on:
But the freedom we strive for means more than broken chains. It means liberation from all those enslavements that warp the spirit and blight the mind, that destroy the soul even though they leave the flesh alive. For men can be enslaved in more ways than one.
Men can be enslaved to themselves. When they let emotion sway them to their hurt, when they permit harmful habits to tyrannize over them — they are slaves. When laziness or cowardice keeps them from doing what they know to be the right, when ignorance blinds them so that, like Samson, they can only turn round and round in meaningless drudgery — they are slaves. When envy, bitterness and jealousy sour their joys and darken the brightness of their contentment — they are slaves to themselves and shackled by the chains of their own forging.
It’s not a bad description of Bibi, raging blindly and bringing the Temple down on his own head. For a long time I thought that the greatest threat to the continued existence of the State of Israel was the ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are able to dictate so much policy while avoiding — for example — the military service required of every other citizen. I stand corrected: it is Bibi Netanyahu, who will sacrifice the nation’s interests to ensure his own political (and perhaps personal) survival.
Men can be enslaved by intolerance. When Jews are forced to give up their Jewish way of life, to abandon their Torah, to neglect their sacred festivals, to leave off rebuilding their ancient homeland — they are slaves….
How deeply these enslavements have scarred the world! The wars, the destruction, the suffering, the waste! Pesah calls us to be free, free from the tyranny of our own selves, free from the enslavement of poverty and inequality, free from the corroding hate that eats away the ties which unite mankind.
Here in the United States, we have long been enslaved by intolerance; it might have had its roots in the Original American Sin of slavery, but even 160 years after the Civil War we struggle: the movement that buried Jim Crow still has a lot of work to do. Everyone sees the need, but nobody wants to do the actual work.
Work is hard; talk is cheap, and easy.