בְּכָל-דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לְהַרְאוֹת אֶת-עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם. In each and every generation a person is obligated to see themselves as having gone out from Egypt. These words from the הגדה של פסח/Passover Haggadah are well known to all of us. They come after Rabban Gamliel’s statement of the three core symbols we’re required to explain and discuss at the סדר/Seder: פסח, מצה, מרור/Shank Bone (Paschal Offering), Matzah and Bitter Herbs (Maror). He’s telling us we have to discuss the relevance and importance of these three central elements of the סדר and he’s then telling us the importance and centrality of the telling and reliving of the story. This is no easy feat to accomplish. To actually see ourselves as having been in Egypt, and having been liberated from some enslavement, is difficult to accomplish in any meaningful manner. At the same time, it’s of critical importance to struggle with and work to attain.
America is the great land of freedom. The freedom we most commonly relate to America is that of “opportunity.” For generations we’ve struggled as a nation to bring more people into the fold of having the freedom of opportunity. When our country was founded, we didn’t include certain groups in this (women and slaves). Over time we’ve progressed, and thankfully our country has come to emancipate and liberate all in our midst. Jews, to varying degrees, encountered this problem over the years as well. We were both discriminated against and welcomed. There were hospitals that wouldn’t allow our doctors to work. Country Clubs and other social organizations closed their doors to us. We were unable to join Sororities and Fraternities and we were not welcomed in certain neighborhoods. This is just the beginning of the discrimination we faced and yet America has been a land of opportunity for our people. American Jews have flourished here unlike any other time in history. With that freedom, we’ve experienced such greatness and sadly such hardship. The reason for this is with the freedom of opportunity, came the unintended consequence of assimilation. With the acceptance by the non-Jewish world we, as a community, have not necessarily thrived so much as we’ve created even greater problems.
When we lived in North Africa, Europe, the Middle East and all over the world, we were not embraced. There were often laws enacted that limited our choices and opportunities, and here in America, all that disappeared. Today Jews in America are in danger of choosing their American identity at the expense of their Jewish core. The antidote is seeing ourselves as the Jew who was once a slave, who was once freed, and who is now a piece of a global puzzle that forms a picture greater than all of its pieces. We must recognize that complicity in failing to embrace this is equal to spurning our sacred treasure.
The days of external forces compelling us to be involved Jews are gone. We have to choose to see ourselves as active and engaged Jews or see ourselves as breaking the endless chain of our peoplehood established when we left Egypt thousands of years ago. It’s sad to realize our ultimate freedom could be our ultimate undoing. It’s sad to see that, in an age of unparalleled rights and opportunities, we’re forgetting our commitments and our obligations to ourselves and to our people.
We at OVS need to think long and hard about what we’re committed to and how we can build something incredible together. We need to recognize we’re tied to our people, our history, our religion and our tradition. We have to see ourselves as religious and engaged people and not see ourselves as outsiders. To really live the words of Rabban Gamliel is to fully embrace ourselves as the Jew in the story. To really live these words is to fully recognize we’re engaged and involved. The freedom of opportunity afforded to us in the US is something we’ve been blessed to enjoy, and at the same time, it’s something that can undermine us as we continue to move forward. The freedom we enjoy is not about absolute freedom so much as it’s about responsibility. Each of us is responsible to see to it that we’re committed and “all-in.” We, here at OVS, have to recognize our community is our responsibility and our sacred commitment. We each need to see ourselves as an important part of the community and need to make being involved a core part of our sacred identity. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Hearshen
