Well, Passover is just around the corner, so it’s time to head to
the store to pick up your brisket, 5-pound box of matza, some macaroons, those
jelly rings that uncle Chayyim likes. Oh! And did you get some Parah Adumah?
What’s a Parah Adumah? Parah Adumah is Hebrew for: Red Heifer.
And this week is Shabbat Parah, the Shabbat of the Red Heifer. One in a cycle of pre-Passover Shabbatot to help us get
ready for the holiday.
This week, we focus on the ritual of the Red Heifer. The Red Heifer
is a creature that does not exist today. During Temple times, in preparing to receive the Passover sacrifices of the
Israelite nation, the priests would sacrifice a red heifer as a means of
purification.
An archaic ritual? Maybe. But, the way I see
it, the idea behind it is simple: before the priests can perform the Passover
ceremonies, they have to get ready. They have to engage in an intensive process
of preparation and purification. Then, once in that state of purity, they can
be ready for the sacred rites they will perform in the Temple.
And this Shabbat, let’s consider: what are we
doing to get ourselves ready for Passover? Our Passover looks different from
the Passover of the priests. So what do we do to ritually prepare?
For many, I would imagine that the impending
Passover holiday is a great opportunity for spring cleaning.
Maybe you switch over dishes or give the oven its once-a-year
scrub down. Maybe you get rid of your leavened products. My family always
stashed our shelf-stable bread products into giant Rubbermaid bins and put
heavy things on top of them to make sure the chametz cooties didn’t get out (and
so bread-crazed children didn’t get in).
Maybe you go on a Manischewitz-brand product
shopping spree, or maybe you start prepping your matzo ball soup. Maybe you are
busy organizing travel plans for family or deciding which seders you’ll attend.
Or maybe you’re deliberating which flourless chocolate cake recipe you’ll make
for dessert.
This is usually what my pre-Passover weeks are
filled with. But, if this is our holiday prep, what does it say to us that the
holiday is about? The priests got ritually pure to present sacrifices. I often feel like the essence of my preparation is
to determine in advance how many times during the week am I going to eat matza
pizza.
I don’t think that our preparation always rises to
the occasion of the holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy getting ready
for Passover. There is something special about the care we take to get ready
for this holiday. But Passover is not just about avoiding leaven. The ritual
symbols are just that: symbols.
Passover is not about eating matzah. Rather,
eating matza is part of what we do to access the meaning of the holiday. Our
ritual symbols and ritual actions are meant to affect us and to encourage us to
think differently about our world. So, let’s make sure we do this in order.
We need to know what we are preparing for before we decide how to prepare.
And, since I’m the one giving the sermon, I’ll
tell you what I think we are preparing for.
The Passover narrative is the story that sits at
the center[1]
of the Jewish community. It is our foundational myth and gives national purpose
to the Jewish people.
My favorite line in the Haggadah is:
בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את אצמו
כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים
In every generation, each person is obligated to see
themselves as if they came out of Egypt.
Awesome!
During the Passover seder, we
are called to internalize the experience of moving from oppression to freedom. And,
because of that experience, our tradition argues, we are obligated to relieve
the suffering we see in the world around us.
That’s the point. We spend all of this energy to
locate ourselves in our history and to use that experience and our newfound
freedom to be agents of freedom in the world.
It’s no surprise, then, that we have so many
different kinds of seders. We have labor seders, women’s seders, Black-Jewish
relations seders. In the 80s you would find Soviet Jewry seders.
I imagine this year you will find Immigrant rights
seders and Ferguson seders. Our story has lasted because it has something to
say, and we are privileged to be among the people who get to say it.
So, we return to our question. How do we prepare
for this holiday? What do we do to ritually prep ourselves to tell our
compelling story and to try and live it in our lives?
Here’s how our high school students have been
preparing. Over the last three weeks The 8th & 9th
graders in Academy have been in a “Social Justice Intensive.” We tried to
answer these three questions:
1.
Where
does our empathy lie?
2.
What
power do we have?
3.
And
what do we want to do about it?
Where does our empathy lie?
We started with Jewish texts and explored how they
ask us to consider the needs of and care for the other. Particularly from our
Passover narrative, the Torah tries to teach us empathy.
The students also talked about what matters to
them. They shared stories about their Tzedakah statements from when they became
B’nai Mitzvah. And we discussed how the issues that matter to them were issues
that they felt personally, topics that held a familial connection, or
organizations they had done some first-hand work with.
The students blew me away. All of the teachers
left that day impressed by the students’ passion and commitment. The students still
cared earnestly about their chosen organizations, AND, they were still engaged
in their work. I think there must be something in the water in this place. Our
community is doing something right with our kids.
What power do we have?
Through the Purim story, we talked about who has
power, where that power comes from, and how they use it. The students closed
out the night talking about where their power comes from, a
And, what do we want to do about it?
We tried to understand the problems that matter to us. They dove
into the intricacies of the minimum wage, expressed outrage at LGBT
discrimination, beliberated anti-bullying policies…
And then, we talked about what they might do about it. They
shared strategies for how, as teenagers, they could be agents for change. Watch
out! We’ve got some firecrackers in that class!
So, after we spent three weeks
1.
Developing our
empathy,
2.
Identifying
what power we have
3.
And how we can
be agents for change,
The Academy students accepted a challenge:
To get ready for Passover, during the next three weeks, they are
going to pick one issue they care about, a problem in society where oppression
exists and freedom is needed, and learn about it. But not just learn. They are
going to create a little packet. Maybe a newspaper article, or a factsheet from
an organization, some of their own thoughts, a couple of prepared questions. And, this is the key: Before the seder, they are going to tell the
leader that they have a few more questions to add to the seder.
When we read in the Hagaddah:
חייב אדם לראות את אצמו...
every person is
obligated to see him or herself as coming out of Egypt
they will introduce their topic and spur a conversation around the
table.
Think back to the best seders your can remember. Sure, there were the perfect matzah balls, the rambunctious
afikomen hunts, t
But, for me, the best seders I’ve experienced are
the ones where the holiday hit a chord. Where I felt like we had a great
conversation; where I was challenge and excited; where we tried to identify
where we see oppression and how we wanted to be agents of freedom. THAT is when
I felt like I had performed the ritual of Passover.
But why talk about this today? Couldn’t it wait
for a sermon at the end of the month closer to Passover? This matters now, because
it takes time to get ready. It’s Shabbat Parah. Our Shabbat where we start to purify,
where we start to prepare ourselves for our sacred rituals.
We start thinking about this now, because,
frankly, we need these three weeks. The priests didn’t go through their
purification ritual five minutes before the big sacrificing show. It wasn’t a
rush job to get in under the wire. It takes time to get read; it takes time to
prepare.
As we get ready for Passover, let’s ask ourselves
the questions our 8th and 9th graders considered:
1.
Where
does our empathy lie?
2.
What
power do we have?
3.
And
what do we want to do about it?
The Passover seder is a remarkable ritual. It
brings our families together. It ties us to our past.
We can go into this holiday ready for that
challenge, but it’s going to take some preparation first.
Shabbat Shalom.
[1] The
2013 Pew Report found that 70% of Jews participated in a Seder the previous
year, the most highly observed tradition considered in the study. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/chapter-4-religious-beliefs-and-practices/#jewish-practices
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