On Passover we celebrate freedom. In the account of the Egyptian Exodus, freedom is one or zero; on one day we are enslaved on the next we are free people.
We celebrated last week in joyous tones what it is to be free, we lean to the left at our Passover feast and ancient mirroring of how the Greeks used to feast on long chairs, we ask many questions, a clear marker of a free people with time and capacity to question and enquire.
Yet it is not one or zero, the Passover Seder is more interested in aspects of ‘non-freedom’ - acknowledge the suffering of slavery, engaging in an imagined poverty and scarcity represented by the ‘Lechem Oni’, Matzah, the bread of poverty on the Passover table. We connect to the aspect of ‘each of us, ourselves, having left Egypt’, engaging our responsibility in the world, to feed those who are without and in the often repeated clause of our holy Torah:
'וְגֵר לֹא־תוֹנֶה וְלֹא תִלְחָצֶנּוּ כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם׃ כׇּל־אַלְמָנָה וְיָתוֹם לֹא תְעַנּוּן׃
You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan'. EXODUS 22:20-21
We are repeatedly tasked to take care of those most in need, most vulnerable, a universal and severe charge.
So, the politics of the day are also not one or zero.
War is one or zero, kill or be killed - pretty stark. Israel is engaged in a war, there are 133 hostages still in the dungeons of Gaza. If Israel does not come out on top many strongly state there will be no State of Israel and there will be another mass genocide of Jews.
If the hostages are not rescued or released, they will die in captivity. One or zero.
But there are unfolding aspects of this gruelling war which are not so clear cut, the responsibility of Israel to consistently account for its humanitarian concern for Gazans while fighting Hamas. For Israel to facilitate aid for the hungry in Gaza.
Faced with a horrific foe, which is gearing up for the next round of combat, rebuilding tunnels, rearming and plotting for a next round of violence, this is an enormous but not impossible ask. Not one or zero, our prayers are for a just war, one that takes account of non-combatants and ultimately has one eye on the hatred stoked (on both sides) for every life lost.
Not one or zero – the role of the rabbi, the role of diaspora communities. I have colleagues and friends on the frontlines of protests in Israel and outside of Israel, people facing violence, arrest and intimidation on both sides. What is the role of our religious leaders? Do we speak out? Or do we focus in on the intimacy and reflection of our spiritual lives?
I take inspiration from one of my foremost religious leaders, the Aish Kodesh, Rav Kalonymous Kalman Shapira, the Warsaw Ghetto Rebbe. He wrote his most prolific work inside the gruesome world of the Warsaw Ghetto in which 380,000 Jews were confined before their mass deportation and murder by Nazis before the end of 1943. The wonder of his work is not his description of Ghetto life but his focus on spiritual life, resolutely opposing a reflection on the material or humanitarian conditions of the day. Instead, he offers lessons of spirit, a modelling of how to hold focus for religious aspiration.
I don’t know the answer today; the world burns, life seems to get harder for Jewish people and Palestinians from day to day. Most crucially at stake is our moderation and reason, especially for all those outside of the Middle East; surely it is our solemn responsibility to give breath to balance, consideration and creative solution rather than to pour fuel on the guns and bombs.
Not zero or one - to who do we turn to depict a path out of this carnage, to show us a path that is not violence and protest forever more?
As we approach Holocaust Memorial Day, Yom HaShoah, across the Jewish world next week, we should hone in on our core message – not one or zero -
Humanity is precious, each and every life is precious for ‘us’ as well as ‘them’.
We cannot surrender our Jewish faith, each and every one of us left Egypt and has a solemn bond with our Creator to take our place at the table of Jewish life, to protect and preserve our community and our people. Our resilience and endurance matters too.
We can be a people that cares deeply for those most vulnerable… it is hard to hold this dissonance in our hearts, but even while fighting a war we can be Jews who heal the sick and feed the hungry of body and soul.
For those reading outside of Israel, we are not in Israel! We must support and protect our People of Israel in Israel but I don’t believe we are to match the fire of the protest movement outside of Israel with our own fire. We must build bridges, relationships, try to steer a course of spirit, meaning and activism away from the gun and towards the dove. Easier said than done.
Shabbat Shalom
