This extra newsletter has two purposes 1) some Torah about Passover 2) A request from you my readers
I appreciate the comments from those of you who have written to me about my new book Judaism Disrupted and are helping spread the word about it. I still need your help. There are many fewer Jewish media outlets and even general media outlets. There are a few simple things you can do to help.
1) If you bought the book on Amazon, please post a positive review.
2) In the next two weeks, please post something on Facebook etc. about the book.
3) Not on social media? Send an email to a minyan of friends recommending they read the book
4) I have posted on my web site links to podcast interviews with me, if people want to find out more about the book before buying it. The latest is: In the Spotlight: Rabbi Michael Strassfeld ("Judaism Disrupted")youtu.be with Abby Pogrebin
5) I also list upcoming speaking engagements-some online; some only in person with a link to register if that is necessary.
Finally, I have created a study guide to the book which you can find on Sefaria at: https://www.sefaria.org/collections/HqW5J3eN?tab=sheets
I am working very hard to promote the book because I believe these ideas should be part of the conversation about the future of American Jewry.
I really appreciate your help.
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A word of Torah: Why is this Passover seder different from all other Passover seders?
For many people, this year’s seder will be special for the simple reason that we will be able to be together in dining rooms and living rooms instead of in zoom rooms. However helpful it was to stay connected electronically during the pandemic, there is no replacement for the sights, smells, and taste of an actual seder. The seder was created 2000 years ago by the rabbis who, faced with the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jewish people, imagined a Judaism that was portable, available to Jews wherever they find themselves in the world. Could they ever imagined that portability would result in people sharing the seder together from all over the world? Unlikely.
However amazing zoom seders were, what makes the seder extraordinary is that it is an ambitious attempt to inculcate in the Jewish people a desire to seek freedom. We are asked not only to remember the story of Egypt, but to experience slavery and freedom as our experience. How? We literally ingest the experience. We eat the bitterness of maror. We drink the sweetness of wine. We eat matzah as a reminder of the food we ate in Egypt and that we carried on our shoulders—our sole possession as we fled Egypt. It was all we needed because we were free. We walk the walk and talk the talk of freedom by asking questions. Why is this night different? Why are we hiding the afikomen? If we eat bread fifty-one weeks a year, why can’t we eat it tonight?
Somewhere over the centuries, the ambitious goal of experiencing slavery and freedom got lost. In many seders today, there is only one remaining question—when do we eat? The four questions, which originally were just sample questions, have become rote, memorized by generations of Hebrew school children. The rest of the text is often read quickly or skipped. A few parts are sung. Everyone argues over whether any child should be called wicked. By the time we arrive at the singing of Dayenu, it has been more than enough.
My recently published book, Judaism Disrupted: A Spiritual Manifesto for the 21st Century argues that Judaism needs to be disrupted to respond to our radically changed world. We live in an open society that encourages open doors rather than high border walls. Instead of the portable Judaism created by the rabbis, we need a permeable Judaism that interacts with the world around us and recognizes that that larger world lives not just in the next neighborhood or even next door. Now that world includes members of our family.
The seder begins with Ha Lahma–Kol dikhfin yeitei ve-yeikhol, kol ditzrikh yeitei ve-yifsakh: “All who are hungry, let them come and eat. All who are in need, let them come celebrate Passover.” This invitation is spoken in Aramaic, which in the ancient world was the daily language. By using Aramaic and not Hebrew, the rabbis were inviting everyone who is hungry to join our abundant meal. We can widen our understanding of hunger as well, as articulated by the prophet Amos: Behold the days are coming, that I shall send forth hunger in the land, not hunger for bread, nor thirst for water, but desire to hear the words of God (Amos 8:11).
“All who are in need, let them come celebrate Passover,” suggests that beyond what is lacking, there is a positive element that needs amplification–the freedom that is at the core of Passover. We acknowledge that, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “no one is free until we are all free.” We need to examine how we are still held back by chains of our own making. We need to understand that every human being is seeking freedom. We need to recommit to struggle for a society that finally lives up to its professed ideals. How do we do that? We do it by understanding the seder as an opportunity to explore the meaning of freedom today. Instead of simply reciting the four questions by rote, for example, consider these questions:
What does it mean that we welcome all four children to the seder? How do we respond to the questions of the challenging child (formerly known as wicked)? How do we engage those who seem silently indifferent--who don’t want to ask questions? How do we listen to each other respectively so that everyone feels free to express their opinion? How do we express those opinions without being hurtful to others?
Does freedom for some people always come at the expense of another people? Is it ever possible to achieve mishpat shalom—a justice of peace where everyone wins?
Does more freedom mean I have fewer restrictions on what I can do? Can I do whatever I want (obviously within some limits)? Or does freedom mean I am free to fulfill my obligations to society without hindrance?
Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of four freedoms: Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Notice that two are freedom of and two are freedom from. Would you add any other freedoms to that list?
Each year Passover calls us to echo Abraham Lincoln’s words calling for “a new birth of freedom.”
Why is this night different from all other nights?
Because tonight, we dedicate ourselves to the rebirth of freedom.
