Quick Comment: Torah Portion for the First Day of Passover (Exodus 12:21-51)

After 430 years on this very day I the Eternal One brought you forth from the Land of Egypt (Exodus 12:41)

The Passover Haggadah insists: “In every generation each of us should act as though we ourselves came for on this day from bondage to freedom.”

More than a Party

The Passover Seder is more than a nice family dinner. It is more—at least it purports to be more—than four questions, hiding the matzah, singing Dayenu, and having someone shake the table to indicate that Elijah has drunk from the cup set aside for him

An Annual Journey

Each year we leave slavery behind and begin a 50-day journey to Sinai where on Shavuot we joyously bind our selves to the Covenant God first made with Abraham to pursue justice and righteous by caring for the poor, the elderly, the hungry, the homeless and the disenfranchised.

We count each day of the journey, thinking of ways to use our talents to make the world a better place

Interestingly, Passover falls almost midway in the calendar year. At the beginning of the year we review the wrong we have done in the year just ended. We repent, we ask forgiveness and we resolve not to repeat those actions, which cause pain to another or diminish the Divine Image in which God created us.

But at year’s midpoint we yearn for more. We relive our journey from slavery to freedom determined to help others make that same journey.

What will we do? We each must answer that for ourselves. We each have different talents and abilities. The Passover Seder touches each of our senses—sight, taste, sound smell and touch—in its call to us to make a sacrifice not of a lamb but of our time talent and energy toward the goal of creating a more just, caring and compassionate society for everyone.