Thoughts for Passover

Passover is a Jewish holiday that symbolizes freedom.  Jews came to Egypt on their own free will and prospered for many years, but then their fortunes turned, and they were enslaved by the Pharaohs.  It took a strong leader, Moses, with the help of God to gain their freedom.  This is indeed a powerful story. 

Unfortunately, our nation had experienced many times the loss of freedom and even risk of annihilation.  The Spanish Inquisition, the pogroms in Russia, the Nazi Holocaust, the refusal of the Soviets to let Jews exit the Soviet Union (the last struggle experienced by my family and many of our friends). 

When I was preparing to conduct the Seder this year, few thoughts came to mind.  We celebrate Passover every year to remember our national history and to pass these lessons to our children.  But given the fact that our nation experienced these problems repeatedly throughout our history; did this mean that our traditions of celebrating Passover were not successful?  Were we not successful in avoiding the same mistakes when we did not follow our traditions and forgot these lessons?  Or perhaps we celebrated Passover too mechanically without making the effort to understand its true meaning.

Now that we have our own nation, Israel, does this protect us from the faith of our ancestors?  Indeed, prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, many times Jews became comfortable in foreign lands (Spain, Germany, Russia, etc.), and felt protected them from the same faith of Jews in Egypt.  Only after the Holocaust and the second exodus (exodus from Europe to re-establish the state of Israel) that the Jews applied some of the lessons of Passover.  However, we cannot rest on our laurels since threats to our Jewish nation did not disappear.  Many threats to our existence exist today -- from the threat of Arab/Muslim terrorism to threat of annihilation from a potential Iranian atomic weapon. We must stay vigilant.

Those of us who live in United States of America feel that no harm can come to us in this great nation that was build on Jewish values – values of freedom.  Founding fathers of United States of America understood the true meaning of freedom and the balance between religion and the rights of individual.  They understood the power of economic freedom and the balance between the responsibilities of the individual to the state versus their right to make their own economic choices.  America’s founding fathers understood the balance between our obligation to support the less fortunate and the loss of freedoms by the state taking away hard earnings of its people to serve its own purpose. 

Recent history showed that even those freedoms are not guaranteed in America.  New administration came to power that has a different interpretation of the American core values and does not understand these core values.  Our economic freedoms are threatened by high taxes, high budget deficits, and income redistribution policies.  These new government bureaucrats seek to enslave us economically by taking away an unfair share of our earnings and our wealth.  They believe that others are entitled to share in our success without making the same effort to earn it.  They pass laws and make policies that make it harder and harder for honest people to succeed and for others to be more dependent on the graces of their government and its handouts.  As it happened in Egypt, our freedoms are slowly lost without us even noticing.  Even more surprisingly, this is done with support of some of us that for good intentions or by simply for being foolish and allowing themselves to be influenced by the popular media. 

The same powerful administration also makes foreign policies that weaken both our host nation – America – and our homeland – Israel – and make both more vulnerable to attack by our enemies.  They foolishly believe that modern day Pharaohs can be and should be appeased rather than confronted.   They go through the motions of celebrating our cherished Passover holiday for political reasons without bothering to understand its true meaning.  These people confuse good will with weakness, and they do not believe in the righteousness of the values of American founding fathers.

So lessons of Passover are as relevant as they have been for ages.  When we celebrate Seder this year, it is important not only to mechanically read the Haggadah, but also reflect on its meaning and its implications to our lives today.   We need to seek strong truthful leaders who are capable of leading us to freedom and avoid slavery and defeat.   I am not sure these leaders exists today both in United States as well as Israel, but I stay optimistic that, God willing, they will be found!