The whole
point of the seder service is to bring the Exodus from Egypt, an event from our
past, directly into present day relevance. “We
were slaves to Pharaoh,” “This is because of what the Eternal did for me when bringing me out of Egypt.” This isn’t a commemoration but a re-enactment. As
we read of the Exodus, we take part in it. We become free and explore with food
and questions what it is to be free. We are guided through the Haggadah to
consider those who are not free and we open the door and invite all those who
are hungry to come and eat. Then we close the door, either to keep out the cold
or possibly because subconsciously we don’t know what we would do with
ourselves if some impoverished person turned up on our doorstep at that moment
asking for food.
As a child
I always thought the message of the seder was that we are free but actually I
think it’s more complex. I think more accurately the seder is a theological
exploration of what it is to be free in a world where others are not. The seder
doesn’t just say “We’re free!” but, rather, “We’re free…. so now what?” As
information becomes globalised we now know more than ever of millions of people
who are anything but free. There are people who are oppressed politically, who
are oppressed because of their gender or sexuality, who are restricted because
of starvation. There are those who have jobs but who are all but slaves in the
most obvious sense, earning a pittance so that companies can make the largest
profit providing us with the latest trainers, electronic gadgets or designer
labeled clothes. The more we learn about this world the more it seems that
freedom is the exception and not the norm.
The Seder
service demands a choice from us - will you sit around and drink wine, or will
you use your freedom to liberate others? Coupled with the Divine call for
justice in the Torah – “Justice, justice you shall pursue” (Deut. 16:20) – the
Seder service is the enactment of a theological imperative to recognise our own
freedom and to use it to liberate others. Yet we spend so long planning the
eating, drinking and reciting that we easily forget the urgency of the
imperative. This Pesach, let us also hold the enactment of that imperative to
be as important as any other aspect of Pesach. Let it be not just “This is what
the Eternal did for me” but also “This is what I did for others.”
