Aish UK Passover Companion

PESACH
C O M PA N I O N

5780

A PESACH TALE

by Rebbetzin Shalvie Friedman

Klerksdorp is a city about 2 hours out of Johannes- In his heavy South African accent he would speak
burg, the centre of Jewish life in South Africa. It was about how he would take the chickens down the road
once a gold mining town which in its heyday was to the Shochet - the kosher butcher /ritual slaughter-
home to about 200 Jewish families. But in the early- to er- who would slaughter them while he waited. Parys,
mid-twentieth century, a migration occurred as the like almost all small towns in South Africa, has few, if
younger generation - born in South Africa, profession- any Jews left. It still has a Jewish Cemetery, where my
al and ambitious - left the small towns for the cities great-grandparents are buried. So there was something
of Johannesburg and Cape Town. Today there are only nostalgic about “returning” to Klerksdorp for Pesach.
about 30 Jews left in Klerksdorp. As a South African married to a New York Jew and
now living in Israel, I couldn’t wait to show my hus-
So how did my husband and I - newly married, bright- band a world that was so tied up to my identity and yet
eyed and bushy tailed - wind up in Klerksdorp for a world that didn’t quite exist anymore.
Passover in 2012? Well that is truly a Pesach Tale….
We were told to expect about 40 people at the seder,
I am a born-and-bred third generation South African many of whom would be coming from nearby towns
who made Aliya after university and met my American where they were the only remaining Jews. We were
husband in Israel where he was studying and living. told that most of the people at the seder would be over
the age of 70. We brainstormed how to make a fun
When we (somewhat impulsively) decided to spend seder. We made games and wrote songs. My husband
our first married Pesach in Africa, we reached out to planned a rap.
the community there to find out if there was a shul
without a Rabbi who would appreciate our help over And so I found myself standing in the Klerksdorp
the festival. It turned out that there was a shul that shul kitchen the day before Pesach. I was peeling pota-
more than qualified...The rabbinical post had been toes. And as I looked onto the African setting out the
vacant for well over 15 years and the Chazan, an el- window- I had a funny feeling that my great grand-
derly man who had led the services and served as the mother stood doing similar preparations in her Pesach
lay leader of the community had recently passed away. kitchen in a similar town so many moons ago.
This community now found itself without a minyan,
a Rabbi or a chazan. We decided that going to Klerks- Suddenly I felt a tap on my back. I looked behind
dorp to run their annual communal seder would be a me to see a little old lady leaning on her walking stick,
perfect way to celebrate Pesach. peering over my shoulder to see what I was doing. I
stepped aside to show her that I was dutifully peeling
My own grandfather grew up in a town similar to - fresh cold potatoes from the pot.
and not very far from - Klerksdorp. He often told us
of his childhood in Parys (no, I don’t mean ‘Paris’). She said “Do you know whose pot that is?”

I felt like I was about to be reprimanded. In my nos- Exodus from Egypt, because interwoven into that tale
talgic daydream, had I mistakenly used a chametz pot are national and personal memories.
from the shul kitchen? Or had I taken something that
wasn’t mine? It is our duty and our deep privilege to tell the story of
our People and the seders they have celebrated, year af-
“Oh I am sorry! I found it here on the Pesach shelf! ter year, link after link in an everlasting glorious chain.
I didn’t realise…”
I recently heard that last year - for the first time since
She waved my apologies away with a smile. “You Jews have been in Klerksdorp - there was no commu-
didn’t do anything wrong. “she said. nal Pesach seder in the town. The elderly had passed
on. They younger people had moved away. The shul
“Just that was my mother’s Pesach pot. When she that had housed us was up for sale. It was indeed the
passed, we donated it to the shul. It’s nice to see end of an era, and I was grateful to have had an op-
potatoes back in that pot.” portunity to be a part - however briefly - of the small
communities and faithful traditions that have kept the
The central focus and Mitzvah of the seder night is to Jewish people alive.
engage in a dialogue. It is a dialogue which has been
spoken for generations. We have been celebrating And now I have a story to tell my children of a Pesach
Pesach by eating matza and marror and telling the story quite unlike any Pesach they have experienced before.
of the exodus for so long, that perhaps we aren’t just It’s the story of their ancestors. It is but one thread in
telling our children the story- we are telling the myr- the intricate and exquisite national tapestry of Jew-
iads of stories of our ancestors who themselves told ish history. A history that is their privilege to tell and
the story and have now become part of the epic story responsibility to continue to write.
that we tell. On Seder Night we don’t just tell about the

THE SHEEP
MENTALITY

by Rabbi Dovid Lichtig

One of the central themes celebrated on Passover is years ago from a civilization that has since crumbled
the freedom of the Jewish people. Up until that point - never to rise again - relevant to Generation Z in the
in history the Jews were a nation of slaves in Egypt world of social media, artificial intelligence and Netf-
and with the Exodus they were freed and became mas- lix?
ters of their own destiny. This message is prominently
placed in the beginning of the Haggadah where we Enter the ancient Egyptian god turned Jewish sacrifice
declare that while we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and perhaps the most obscure character of the Exodus
if God had not taken our ancestors out we would all story: the Pascal lamb. With since lost technology that
still be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. still baffles engineers and scientists today, the ancient
Egyptians were light years ahead of other civilizations
The trouble with this is peculiar opening statement is in terms of engineering, agriculture and societal devel-
that while ancient Egypt endured for an extortionately opment. What did such an advanced, cultured nation
long time, perhaps as long as three thousand years, it see in the sheep that they venerated it so much? And
- the most advanced culture the world had seen - also why did the Jewish people slaughter the sheep as they
ultimately fell to the Roman Empire and became just left Egypt?
another Roman province. Christianity then took root
followed by Islam, when Egypt was conquered by the On Friday July 8th 2005, in the Van province of east-
Muslim army under the Rashidun caliphate in the 7th ern Turkey, shepherds watched in horror as hundreds
century. Throughout the centuries, the ever-evolving of their sheep followed each other over a cliff. The
Egypt eventually came to bear almost no similarity at BBC reported that one sheep had ostensibly stepped
all to its historical counterpart of Biblical and ancient over the cliff edge by mistake only to be followed
fame. by the entire flock with thousands jumping off and
hundreds falling to their death. Turkish newspapers re-
If so, what are the chances that the Jewish people ported a loss of about £42,000 in all. As the old adage
really would have ‘remained there as slaves to Pharaoh’ goes, they literally followed each other like sheep! This
as entire civilizations rose and fell around them and brief newspaper report symbolizes the essence of
even the mere concept of a ‘Pharaoh’ became a distant what sheep do. They follow. Even if following is coun-
memory more closely correlated with an artifact in a terintuitive and clearly detrimental to them to the point
museum than a powerful leader? of being fatally harmful. Sheep will literally follow to
the death. As long as there’s a sheep in front of them
Our sages also direct us to view the experience of going somewhere – anywhere! - the rest of the sheep
leaving Egypt as if it’s currently happening, in real time. will follow.
How is the exodus of an ancient people thousands of

This concept of blindly following what was previously come from. In this system, the only thing holding you
accepted is the very bedrock on which Egyptian cul- back from greatness is yourself.
ture was built. There was nothing that made a Pharaoh
different to a slave other than the fact that a Pharaoh This is precisely why the Jewish people were com-
was born into the royal family and a slave was not. In manded to risk their lives and slaughter an Egyptian
other words, serfdom and the feudal system reigned deity at the onset of the first Passover. They were
supreme. How you were born was how you lived and slaughtering the sheep mentality that had held them
how you died. Born a Pharaoh you died a Pharaoh back for hundreds of years. They were embedding in
and born a slave you died a slave, for that was your their DNA that the background you come from and
fate. And in a society governed by fate, you follow - the family you were born into are all meaningless. Man
you don’t create; your value and worth are signed and is judged solely by what he accomplishes, in direct
sealed from the day you are born with no chance of contradiction to the Egyptian culture.
escape. This sheep mentality, echoed in the animal
itself, is what the ancient Egyptians worshipped and The Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt wasn’t simply
just like sheep, in ancient Egypt you followed to the a matter of a physical departure; they were also under-
death. I am struck by the powerful imagery of Phar- going a monumental mental shift. They were leaving
aoh exhorting his soldiers to follow him in pursuit of this mentality behind them, symbolically slaughtered
the Israelites to the Red Sea. And they follow. Even and its blood pasted on the doorposts of the homes
though he and they know full well that it will be the that for so long had been little more than prisons.
death of them. From this point on they were now masters of their
own destiny and creators of their future, not followers
This mentality, attitude and societal philosophy is also of a herd.
the polar opposite of what Jewish culture believes in,
espoused by Moses and the newly established Jew- Let’s return to our opening statement: If the Jewish
ish law. Their dissenting view at its core was that all people had not left Egypt they would still be slaves
human beings have unlimited potential and no matter to Pharaoh in Egypt. This means that had the Jewish
what you born into or what your circumstances are, people not bought into this new mindset they would
you have the innate ability to change the world. From still be slaves to this sheep mentality, be it under the
Jethro to Ruth, from King David to Rabbi Akiva, your ancient Egyptians, Rome or any other culture or soci-
circumstances and background mean nothing and you ety that would rise after that. It was the sheep mental-
are only judged by what you achieve - not where you ity that they were escaping and this concept is just as
relevant to a Jew in London in 2020 as it was to a Jew
leaving Egypt in 1476 BCE. Possibly even more so.

SCHRODINGER’S
CARDBOARD

by Rebbetzin Ilana Epstein

Matzah. The bread of paradox. How can this very bly leavened. However, without the aid of synthetic
basic bread mean so much to so many? Even the leavening agents, yeast would have been of the wild
Torah can’t seem to keep it straight - is it the “bread of variety, allowed to ferment over time. Consequently,
poverty” (Lechem Oni) or is it the “bread of freedom” ancient bread would have been much slower to rise
(Lechem Cherut). Is it our birthright or the last vestige than our modern variety. Unsurprisingly, when the
of our slavery? Should we cry embittered tears or Israelites were told to make a dash for it in the middle
should we dance for joy over everything that this bread of the night, they would have had to bake dough that
represents? hadn’t fully risen! The bread would have been as flat
as a pancake! And so hey presto! We invented matzah,
If we just take a moment to think about it, everything thus giving people what to complain about on Pesach
concerning matzah is complicated. From the days in for thousands of years.
which it is served to the preparations required from us
before the matzah ever reaches the table. Even the seder From that point forward, matzah remains pretty much
itself requires a complicated story, almost a feature the same. It is round and small and, most surprisingly
length introduction before we even taste the matzah! for our modern sensibilities, soft. If we look to Ethio-
Everything about matzah is complicated: that is, aside pian Jews who have made matzah uninterrupted since
from the ingredients. There are only two: flour and antiquity, they still prepare their matzah in the exact
water. That’s it. same way, daily, communally and soft. In many Sephar-
di households, soft matzah is still eaten over Pesach.
The bread of paradox has remained unchanged for
thousands of years and to understand the paradox, Some of the Pesach customs that we are familiar
rather than to explain it away, let us start from the very with make more sense if we consider that the original
beginning, tracing the story of matzah through the matzah was soft. For example, the “Hillel sandwich” -
ages. that we make towards the end of the seder, works much
better as a ‘laffa style’ wrap than squished between two
What did the bread-making process look like in cracker-like matzahs. The kabbalistic custom of resting a
ancient Egypt? Bread in ancient times was invaria- seder plate on the matzahs works better over soft matzah

that can absorb the weight of the seder plate, rather reached America and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, he
than over brittle matzahs that are sure to break. found matzahs hard to come by in his new hometown.
So he and his wife Nesah started making matzahs in
It was only in Europe in the late 16th century that their basement. The demand for matzahs was so high
matzahs turned into the cracker-like creation we know that they soon outgrew their basement and moved to a
today. In order to adhere even more stringently to the huge factory. Why was demand so high? Sure, Amer-
laws of avoiding chametz, the matzah makers removed ican Jewry needed matzah for Pesach, but the factory
as much water as possible from the dough. Thus, the was producing, at its peak, 75,000 pounds of matzah
matzah making also moves out of the home and the daily! Truth be told, most of it was going to American
woman’s domain. The dough becomes hard to work pioneers heading West, as it was a food staple that
with and unwieldy; working with such a tough dough would stay fresh over an extended period of time even
in the prescribed 18 minutes becomes a gauntlet run. in difficult conditions. Is it too lofty to say that matzah
was the making of the American frontier? It is moving
As the matzah is such a huge part of our collective to picture those pioneers, just like the Jewish slaves,
practice, it is unsurprising that anti-Semites throughout setting out into the great unknown, with faith in God
the ages ascribe a negative aspect to the most basic to show them the way and just some unleavened bread
of our foods, often with fatal consequences. In Rabbi to feed their dreams.
Joseph Cairo’s magnum opus of Jewish law Shulchan
Aruch, we read that it is customary to use raisin wine As the complex and varied history of matzah shows,
on Pesach. Why is this? Raisin wine is golden, as its true paradox is that it ties us to our past, never
opposed to red wine. There were so many cases of allowing us to forget where we came from. It is, in
blood libels around Pesach that this law had to be put this sense, the “bread of poverty”, echoing back to
in place in a number of communities. The accusation humble beginnings. And yet, at one and the same time,
that Jews used the blood of Christian children to make it presents as the “bread of freedom”. How can we
their matzah first surfaced in Norwich in 1144. Unbe- reconcile this most peculiar of traditional foods, or is
lievably, the last blood libel was as recent as in 2014, at it simply a case study in what would have happened
a pro-Hamas rally in Seattle of all places. The injustice had Erwin Schrodinger owned a cracker rather than a
is unfathomable on so many levels. And yet its insidi- pet cat?
ous existence as a myth is a reality that quite shocking-
ly persists to this day. Perhaps the answer lies in a fascinating insight offered
by the famous Biblical commentator Rashi. He notes
When Issac Singer, a French Jew, introduced the first that the phrase “lechem oni” - the bread of our
matzah rolling machine in 1838, it was instantly ac- poverty - can alternatively be read as “the bread of
cepted by most Western European Jews - its benefits our answers” (as “oni” means both “poor” and
automatically appreciated. This was not the case in “response”). Matzah is the bread that takes centre-
Eastern Europe. One of the leading Rabbis went as stage at a festive meal constructed entirely around the
far as to say that someone eating machine-made matzah process of asking questions and answering them. And
was eating chametz on Pesach! Yet the need for afforda- so, it would seem that the bridge connecting “poverty”
ble mass-production soon outweighed this stringency. to “freedom” depends on our ability to discover those
Machine-made matzah cut down on labor costs and en- answers. In recounting who we are and where we came
sured that even the poorest of Jews could have matzah from, can we answer where we are going and who we
on Pesach. will be? Matzah is a tangible link in the chain of Juda-
ism. It is how we hand down our legacy. A legacy that
In 1888, a Jew called Abramson from Salant in Lith- is complex and difficult yet simple and straightforward
uania, trying to escape Russian conscription, took the all at the same time. Like Jews and Judaism, matzah is a
passport of a deceased man called Dov Baer Man- paradox.
ischewitz. When the newly minted ‘Manischewitz’

WHAT’S IN
A NAME?

by Rabbi Eli Birnbaum

Exodus. A word that sends a shiver of excitement where he orders all new-born males to be cast into the
down even the oldest spine. Miracles. Matzah. Cha- Nile. Yocheved hides Moses in a reed basket amongst
roset. Surgically clean kitchen. Cereal that costs £6 a the bulrushes and sends Miriam to watch over
box and tastes of sawdust. There is a certain magic in him. Irony, it would seem, is a dish best served ko-
the air around Pesach time. And yet, the actual name sher-for-Passover as Pharaoh’s own daughter rescues
of the book ‘Exodus’ in antiquity is Shemot, meaning Moses from the river and smuggles him back to the
simply ‘Names’. If the miracles, political upheaval and palace to raise him in the seat of Egyptian power. But
the showdown between Moses and Pharaoh are the ‘Moses’ wasn’t his real name either, was it?
fireworks illuminating the Seder night sky, names and
identities are the stars twinkling in the backdrop. After Pharaoh’s daughter rescues Moses, he is returned
to his biological mother who will serve as his wet
“These are the names of the Children of Israel who nurse until he is weaned. The narrative resumes: “The
went down to Egypt…” (Exodus 1:1). boy grew up and she [Yocheved] brought him to her
and he was a son to the daughter of Pharaoh. And
With this introduction, we are launched into the time- she [the princess] called him ‘Moses’, saying ‘For I
less mayhem of slavery, blood, boils, frogs and intran- drew him from the water’”. (Exodus 2:10). His name
sigent tyrant-kings. Time and again, the Torah draws is given to him by Pharaoh’s daughter! And what was
our attention to the names of the characters it wants Moses – probably the most famous and certainly the
us to meet. most important Jew who ever lived – called before he
‘grew up’, the name given at birth by his parents?
In an infamously cruel twist, Pharaoh decrees that all
Israelite boys are to be killed at birth. The midwives We have no idea. It isn’t, implores the Torah, a con-
responsible for this abhorrent task are ‘Shifra’ and cern we should be worrying about.
‘Puah’. But those aren’t really their names at all, are
they? Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi) comments: Fast forward close to eight decades; Moses kneels, fro-
zen in awe at the sight of a burning bush. Undoubted-
“The midwives were actually Yocheved and Miriam, ly, the man soon to be appointed saviour of Israel and
Moses’ mother and sister. Yocheved was named ‘Shi- nemesis of the mightiest empire in the ancient world
fra’ because she would clean and massage the new- has innumerable questions about the nature of this
born at birth, whilst Miriam was called ‘Puah’ because task. And yet, the most pressing of all is apparently:
she would whisper and sing to the child to calm them.”
“When I come to the Children of Israel and say to
Pharaoh’s paranoia spirals uncontrollably to the point them, ‘The God of your forefathers has sent me to

you,’ and they say to me ‘What is His name?’ – what Identity gives freedom. Without it, we are lost, trapped
shall I say to them?” (Exodus 3:13). in a prison of our own shortcomings, slaves to a cul-
ture of likes, shares and subscriptions.
Time and again, the Exodus narrative delivers a fasci-
nating subplot all pointing in one, singular direction: The Kabbalists quote a profoundly humbling thought:

The foundation of true freedom is identity of self. “After a person is buried, the Angel of Death sits on
their coffin and knocks on the lid. He asks ‘What is
How we define ourselves, the name we are known as your name?’ And the deceased replies, ‘The Almighty
by those we encounter, builds the arena within which is well aware that I don’t know!’.”
freedom can flourish. The more lacking that arena is,
the more suffocated the freedom. To live a lifetime free in name but not deed is tragic.
To die having fled from fashion to trend to craze and
Exodus tells the story of enslaved masses breaking back, existing to be defined by salary, car and job title
their shackles and leaving entrenched suffering behind. is heart-breaking. The notion that a person can live
Shemot tells them where they are going. The paradigm shift with themselves and yet never know themselves is petrifying.
woven throughout is so subtle it’s easy to overlook: To this end, Rabbi Shimon teaches in Ethics of the
Fathers:
Freedom doesn’t give identity. Identity gives freedom.
“There are three crowns: the crown of Kingship, the
Without question the single most bizarre omission crown of Priesthood and the crown of Torah. But the
in the entire story is Pharaoh’s name. The architect crown of a good name surpasses them all.”
and mastermind of the first ‘Final Solution’, rendered
nameless by a scripture that simply refers to him by his This year, our Pesach experience will be incomparable
title. Akhenatem? Ramses II? Thutmose II? Remark- to any in living memory. It is so, so easy to feel like we
ably, the Torah doesn’t care. Because the real value of are drowning, completely overwhelmed by the con-
an identity in the ‘Book of Names’ rises and falls by stant updates bringing saddening news from through-
the blade of what you do and what you stand for, not who out the community and across the globe. Images and
you happen to be. clips of people fighting over shopping, purposefully
licking trains and acting in a reprehensibly selfish
Pharaoh, the freest and most powerful individual in manner are enough to combine two of the plagues
the entire narrative is damningly reduced to complete and make the blood boil. But that is only one side of
anonymity. And yet, the humble midwives, indentured the tale. It is the story of the Exodus – from outdoors
servants compelled to a life of torment by their name- to lockdown. Meanwhile in the background, humbly
less tormentor, are given names that tell of their care and unassumingly, the story of Shemot is playing in full
and sensitivity towards the children they risked their Technicolor brilliance. It is the story of so many brave,
own lives to save. Beyond this, the most important Jew selfless individuals both on the frontlines and beyond,
who ever lived is known in perpetuity by a name that doing everything they possibly can to ease the pain and
didn’t appear on his papyrus birth certificate. Indeed, suffering of the vulnerable members of our society.
it isn’t even a Hebrew word. It is Egyptian. Given in a This Pesach, I will think of them when I raise each of
moment of pure selfless love by a royal heroine who the four cups. To those who truly value the crown of a
had everything to lose and nothing to gain in shelter- good name. Thank you.
ing and raising a Jewish child as her own.

AT HOME WITH
THE KIDS

by Rabbi Daniel Rowe

The ‘four children’, a beloved section of the Haggadah, what a child asks, no Jewish question can be answered
conveys an image of four different types of children, if it does not start with the Exodus. It is that central
each of whom is sitting around the Seder table react- and that critical. Without it nothing else makes sense.
ing differently to it. That picture is at best only half Yet that is not enough.
correct. The Haggadah’s source is the four times that
Torah refers to the questions a child might pose. Yet a The situation is far more confusing when it comes to
closer study of those sources suggests something far the ‘evil’ child.
deeper than meets the eye in the Haggadah.
There the Torah’s answer and that provided for in the
For one thing, these children are most certainly Haggadah simply do not match up. To the seemingly
not asking about Seder night itself. The ‘wise child’, reasonable and not remotely evil question, ‘What is
confronted by an external culture different to their this service to you?’, the Torah offers us to “...tell your
own, starts to ask probing questions about what child: ‘this is a Pesach offering for Hashem because
their parents see in Jewish observance in general. He passed over our houses when he brought a plague
What prompts the ‘wise’ question is not Matzah, but upon Egypt and saved our homes’.” Nothing in the
everything Jewish: Shabbat, Kosher, giving 10% of our Torah’s message quite prepares us for the Haggadah’s
income to charity and so forth. Likewise the simple strike: ‘[the child] said “[what is this service] to you?”
child’s question is prompted not by Seder night, but by - note ‘you’ excluding himself. Thus he has denied
observing the act of redemption of a first born boy. something fundamental. Likewise you should ‘blunt
The ‘evil’ (or perhaps more fairly, the cynical) child’s his teeth’ and retort, ‘It is because of this that Hashem
question takes place a few hours before Seder night, acted for me when He brought me out of Egypt’ -
whilst observing masses of Jews ascending to the ‘me’ and not him. Had he been there [with that atti-
Temple and slaughtering the sheep in preparation for tude] he would never have been redeemed!”
the Pesach meal. Indeed the only child whose educa-
tional message is presented, in the Torah at least, as What prompts the Haggadah to ignore the Torah’s
being on Seder night, is the one who does not know gentle response in favour of delivering a sharp shock
how to ask. to the system? And if the Haggadah is correct that this
child needs something stronger, why did the Torah
What relevance, then, do these four children have to abstain?
Seder night? Once again the Torah texts provide the in-
sight. The questions may not be about the Exodus, but But the problem only seems to worsen when we realise
the answers are. The Torah is telling us that no matter that the Haggadah has not merely inserted a substitute
answer; it directly plagiarised it from a different child;

the one who does not know how to ask. “For the one stances any child indeed might. And the same goes
who does not know how to ask, you should initiate for for each child. Indeed if a child represents the para-
them as it says, ‘tell your child on that day: Because of digm of the questioner, then the four children express
this Hashem acted for me when He brought me out elements of each one of us. All of us have aspects of
of Egypt’.” wisdom - a desire to seek deeper understanding; all
have aspects of cynicism; all have a simple side that
Several commentators offer a compelling approach. just wants more information; and all of us have an
The ‘evil’ child is also a child who does not know aspect to us that has stopped seeking and searching.
how to ask questions. The Hebrew word for question
(‘sho’el’) implies a personal need. We ask because we Seder night is a night for children. But it is also much
are seeking something. We are searching for depth, more. It is night that demands that each of us be-
meaning, understanding and identity. Like the English comes a child. Each of us must become a questioner.
word ‘quest’ that is at the root of ‘question’. But the
word ‘sho’el’ is not present when the Torah describes In a dictum which has sadly become all too real this
the ‘evil’ child’s question. In fact, it isn’t a question at year, our sages remark: ‘If there is no child present, an
all: ‘When your child will utter to you: what is this ser- adult should ask the questions… and if there is only
vice to you?’ It is a pseudo-question. A cynical attempt one adult they must ask themselves the questions…’
at a mocking statement, with a question mark thrown
onto the end to disguise the statement’s true tone. But Armed with that insight, the whole first section of the
there is no real searching or seeking. Haggadah becomes clear. We do all we can to provoke
questions but we do not answer the questions. In-
Still, there can be a certain discomfort at the Hagga- stead we tell the questioner that we needed questions
dah’s suggestion for handling the ‘evil’ child. Worse, because tonight there is an enormously important
the very notion of labelling a child ‘evil’ seems highly discussion. Effectively we tell the child ‘it was so
problematic. Indeed labelling any child seems far too you would ask, seek and search’. That is not a trivial
dismissive for either contemporary sentiment or for question-baiting; rather it is a deadly serious attempt to
Torah itself. Until we realise that the Torah never actu- shift our modality.
ally offers such labels. There is no such thing as a child
who is purely wise, nor one who is purely evil, nor one To re-enact the Exodus is to offer us an experience
who is just simple. And there is certainly no such thing to climb to heights of unimaginable scale. It is an
as a child who does not know how to ask questions - opportunity to open up worlds that we thought were
at least not one capable of understanding the answer unreachable, and to achieve a freedom we thought im-
that the Torah and Haggadah provide. possible. The Haggadah will serve as our guide. But the
journey is not one of information. It is one of won-
From the context of Torah it is clear that any child der. And that requires us to be children. All of us.
could ask the ‘wise’ question. Under the right circum-

ISOLATION OR
INCUBATION?

by Rabbi Ari Kayser

This year, many of us will have a good answer for the stones of ice and fire rained down from the heavens;
timeless Passover question “Why is this night dif- the Jewish people stayed indoors. The double-miracle
ferent from all other nights?” This night is different was that the Jewish people not only witnessed the de-
because I am worried about my loved ones. This night struction of their oppressors and the resetting of the
is different because I don’t have my family around the environment to which they had become accustomed,
table with me for Seder. This night is different because but also in that the plagues did not affect them. They
I couldn’t find all the Pesach food I needed. This night sat by their windows and looked out at the destruction
is different because I am alone. of the world as they knew it. The reset button had
been pressed and they were witnessing the destruction
How are we meant to navigate all the loneliness and before the rebuilding.
uncertainty and not fall into the abyss of paranoia that
has overridden our news outlets and radio stations, This came to a crescendo at the last of the plagues,
let alone our conversations with family and strangers the killing of the firstborn, when the Jews were in-
alike? For most of us, the spike in our screen time has structed to stay indoors, and paint their doorposts with
added to our obsession with what is happening in ‘the the blood of the Egyptian deity, the sheep; “And the
outside world’. blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a
sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you,
As slaves in Egypt, the Children of Israel had to con- so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the
tend with many unbearable circumstances. According land of Egypt” Exodus 12:13.
to the sages, the onset of the first of the ten plagues,
the plague of blood, actually signified the end of the The name Passover itself is a reference to the fact
more than two centuries of slavery. Those plagues that God did not destroy us in a plague. In the current
then continued more or less uninterrupted for a whole global climate this takes on a whole new meaning.
year. As frogs emerged from the depths of the Nile, Rashi, the famous 11th century commentator asks:
locusts swarmed Egyptian airspace, and mega-hail- Why does the verse say, ‘when I see the blood’? Surely

God sees everything? Rather, what it means to say is ourselves for the new world order. As this happens
that God will be paying close attention to the fact that outside, it happens within us too.
you are engaged in the performance of His commands
— then, and only then, will ‘I pass over you’. That is what Pesach is: the festival of freedom in the
month of spring. Read: a time to celebrate our true
When the world is self-destructing outside, God is values in a moment of renewal.
looking to see what we are doing inside.
Let us be defiant; we are isolated, but we are also in-
For the duration of the year of the plagues, the Jewish sulated. We are confined, but we could also be rede-
people had to learn how to undo the psychologi- fining our lives. We are suffocating, but we could also
cal constrictions that slavery had embedded in their be incubating. We are separated, but we could also
consciousness, and how to conduct themselves whilst be reminding ourselves that we are integrated with
figuratively stuck indoors. As the world was recreating the global human family. We are in lockdown, but we
itself outside, we were recreating ourselves inside. This could also be freeing ourselves from the shackles that
was our preparation for freedom. Our freedom was humankind has unconsciously placed on itself.
preceded by a time to re-evaluate our values and de-
cide what we stood for. It was a period not of isolation How do we navigate the loneliness and make this night
but of incubation. It was a time to inculcate within as ‘different’ as it always used to be – joyful, uplifting
ourselves who we are, what is important to us, and and infused with a unique magic? We can begin by
to know that the strength to actualize our potential changing our focus from the outside to inside. The
comes from within. great sage, Ben Zoma, described happiness as not a
pursuit of that which you lack, but an expression of
Perhaps we are reliving this process today. Perhaps that which you already have. Our ability to access our state
we are being tasked with undoing the psychological of happiness and joy and meaning will come not from
constrictions that a post-moral, post-truth, and “I-fo- looking outside at the things we can no longer access,
cused” society has placed us in. Perhaps we are being but from peering inside into the world that our con-
afforded the opportunity to reset. To rethink. To sciousness inhabits. Indeed, happiness doesn’t come to
reassess what is important to us. As the world outside you, it comes from you.
descends into the unknown, we are tasked with reset-
ting ourselves inside. As we collectively turn inward, This Pesach we are all faced with the challenge of do-
and the dust and fumes of our human footprint begin ing things differently. Let’s attune our minds to the fact
to settle, the fish are returning to the seas, the birds that even though we are alone, we are alone together.
sing once more, and the smog hovering above our Let’s make this night different not because we were
concrete jungles begins to dissipate – and we can smell forced to, but because we
the freshness of the air that once was – we prepare choose to.

THE UNASKED
QUESTION

by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Pesach is a night of questions, but there is one we do ‘at the end of days’ the gift of prophecy was taken
not ask, and it is significant. Why was there a Pesach in from him. Without knowing it, the Israelites were part
the first place? Why the years of suffering and slav- of a narrative that had been scripted long before.
ery? Israel was redeemed. It regained its freedom. It
returned to the land its ancestors had been promised A midrash – one of the few places in which the sages
centuries before. But why the necessity of exile? Why expressed their disquiet about this strange stratagem
did God not arrange for Abraham or Isaac or Jacob of providence – expresses the problem very acutely:
simply to inherit the land of Canaan? If the Israelites
not gone down to Egypt in the days of Joseph, there The Holy One blessed be He sought to bring about
would have been no suffering and no need for re- the decree He had spoken of to Abraham, that ‘your
demption. Why Pesach? descendants will be strangers in a country not their
own.’ So He arranged that Jacob should love Joseph
The question is unavoidable, given the terms of the more than his other sons, that the brothers would be
biblical narrative. The Torah indicates that there was jealous and hate Joseph, that they would sell him to the
nothing accidental about the events leading up to Ishmaelites who would bring him down to Egypt, and
Pesach. Centuries before, Abraham had been told by that Jacob would hear that Joseph was still alive and
God in the ‘covenant between the pieces,’ ‘Know for living there. The result was that Jacob and the tribes
certain that your descendants will be strangers in a went to Egypt and became enslaved. Rabbi Tanhuma
country not their own, and they will be enslaved and said: To what can this be compared? To a herdsman
ill-treated for four hundred years’ (Genesis 15:13). We who wishes to place the yoke on a cow, but the cow
make repeated reference in the course of the Hagga- refuses to have it placed on her. What does the herds-
dah to the fact that the whole sequence of events was man do? He takes a calf from the cow and leads it to
part of a pre-ordained plan. God ‘had already calcu- the field where ploughing is to take place. The calf
lated the end’ of suffering. When Jacob went down to begins to cry for its mother. The cow, hearing the calf
Egypt he was, we say, onus al pi ha-dibbur, ‘forced by di- cry, rushes to the field, and there, while its attention is
vine decree.’ God himself told Jacob, ‘Do not be afraid distracted and it is thinking only of its child, the yoke
to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great is placed upon it (Tanhuma, Vayeshev).
nation there’ (Genesis 46:3) without giving him an
intimation of the sufferings his children would endure. The script God writes for His people is sometimes
The sages say that at the end of his life, when Jacob circuitous and terrifying. The sages applied to it the
wanted to tell his children what would happen to them pointed phrase ‘How awesome is God in His dealings
with mankind’ (Psalm 66:5). Why did He want His

people to experience slavery? Why was exile in Egypt are infertile. Only through God’s intervention are they
the necessary prelude to their life as a sovereign nation able to conceive. Abraham goes through the trial of
in the promised land? the binding of Isaac, only to discover that God, who
has asked him to sacrifice his child, says ‘Stop’ at the
The Book of Jonah tells a strange story. Jonah has last moment. This is how the covenantal family learns
been asked by God to convey a warning to the peo- that having children is not something that merely
ple of Nineveh. Their ways are corrupt; the city will happens. It is how the people of Israel learned, at the
be destroyed unless they repent. Jonah flees from his dawn of their history, never to take children for granted.
mission, and in the course of the book we learn why. Jewish continuity, the raising of new generations of
He knew, he says, that the people of Nineveh, hearing Jews, is not natural, inevitable, a process that takes care
the words of the prophet, would repent and be forgiv- of itself. It needs constant effort and attention. The
en. For Jonah, this was unjust. When people do wrong, same is true of freedom.
they should suffer the consequences and be punished.
This was particularly so in the case of Nineveh, a city Freedom in the biblical sense – responsible self-re-
of the Assyrians who were to be the cause of so much straint – is not natural. To the contrary, the natural or-
suffering to Israel. God’s forgiveness conflicted with der in human societies, as it is in the animal kingdom,
Jonah’s sense of retributive justice. God decides to is that the strong prey on and dominate the weak.
teach Jonah a moral lesson. He sends him a gourd to Nothing is rarer or harder to achieve than a society of
give him shade from the burning sun. The next day equal dignity for all. Merely to conceive it requires a
He sends a worm that makes the gourd wither and massive disengagement from nature. The Torah tells
die. Jonah is plunged into suicidal depression. God us how this was achieved, through the historical expe-
then says to him: ‘You have been concerned about this rience of a people who would ever afterward be the
gourd, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It carriers of God’s message to mankind.
sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh
has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people Israel had to lose its freedom before it could cherish it. Only
who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and what we lose do we fully pay attention to. Israel had
many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about to suffer the experience of slavery and degradation
that great city?’ before it could learn, know, and feel intuitively that
(Jonah 4:10-11). there is something morally wrong about oppression.
Nor could it, or any other people, carry this message
God teaches Jonah to care by giving him something in perpetuity without reliving it every year, tasting the
and then taking it away. Loss teaches us to value things, harsh tang of the bread of affliction and the bitterness
though usually too late. What we have, and then lose, we of slavery. Thus was created, at the birth of the nation,
do not take for granted. The religious vision is not about a longing for freedom that was at the very core of its
seeing things that are not there. It is about seeing the memory and identity.
things that are there and always were, but which we
never noticed, or paid attention to. Faith is a form of Had Israel achieved immediate nationhood in the pa-
attention. It is a sustained meditation on the miraculousness of triarchal age without the experience of exile and perse-
what is, because it might not have been. What we lose and cution, it would – like so many other nations in history
are given back we learn to cherish in a way we would – have taken freedom for granted; and when freedom
not have done had we never lost it in the first place. is taken for granted, it has already begun to be lost.
Faith is about not taking things for granted. Israel became the people conceived in slavery so that
it would never cease to long for liberty – and know
This is the key to understanding a whole series of that liberty is anything but natural. It requires constant
narratives in the book of Genesis. Sarah, Rebecca and vigilance, unceasing moral struggle. Israel discovered
Rachel long to have children but discover that they freedom by losing it. May it never lose it again.

Published online at rabbisacks.org on 01/04/14. The above piece also appears in the Koren Sacks Haggada.
Reprinted with kind permission from The Office of Rabbi Sacks