Rabbinic Reflections: Spring transformation

Let me begin by wishing those who celebrate it a Happy Easter. I am guessing, though, that just as Jews had to adjust their expectations and experiences of the Passover seder, Christians will be adjusting to an Easter unlike any that have experienced before. Virtual community, video conference celebrations, and private home ceremonies all lack something important to the human psyche, even if it is just what we are used to having. We need more; we also need to make do in order to save lives.

A seder on Zoom.

Going into the time I usually prepare for Passover, I was despondent. I could not imagine preparing all the food without guests and without guests helping out. I could not imagine finding meaning in the story of freedom when I felt so trapped. I found comfort, though, when I was reintroduced to the verses in Exodus which tell of the first Passover and make explicit that the first was just an introduction to a timeless annual exercise whose timelessness is its own power.

Right after describing the events leading into the first Passover, Exodus chapter 12 gives us the rules and then goes on to declare:

"You shall observe this as an institution for all time, for you and for your descendants. And when you enter the land that the LORD will give you, as God has promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, because God passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when God smote the Egyptians but saved our houses.’" (Exodus 12:24-26)

The Passover ritual is “for all time.” Not only is it stated that the ritual is “for [us] and for [our] descendants” but we are also told that our children will ask us what it is all about! Before the Israelites had even painted the doorposts of their homes with lamb’s blood, they were asked to envision children asking what it is about and explaining it. In other words, the first Passover contained within it a lesson for those not physically free: you have to think it and say it, if it is not true yet, it will be.

This spring is like no other in living generations. Our communal safety has demanded that we stay home as much as we can and that we avoid contact with people outside of our household. There are so many ways in which this situation creates suffering. In that suffering, we are asked to find silver linings or to be inspired by the call to save lives. Both are often remote. Perhaps, more than ever, though, we are living in our heads (we are certainly looking at square screens with talking heads). Where we go in our minds will be just as important as not going anywhere with our bodies.

This spring, as the flowers bloom, as the skies clear or rain, and as we celebrate holidays of hope, renewal, and resurrection, let us remember that Israel’s first freedom was mental. Let us find the internal space to see with our minds that, however challenging this spring is, hope springs eternal. We need to enact, even if only privately or in a virtual community, the rituals that remind us that another spring will be better. By saying that next year hope will be manifest we are reminded that we are free, we are renewing, and indeed already we have hope. We just need to hang on longer than we are used to doing; eternity stretches far longer. Think it, say it, and this spring will be a transformation toward redemption.

About Rabbi Jeremy Winaker

Rabbi Jeremy Winaker is the executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Hillel Network, responsible for West Chester University, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and other area colleges. He is the former head of school at the Albert Einstein Academy in Wilmington and was the senior Jewish educator at the Kristol Hillel Center at the University of Delaware for four years. Rabbi Winaker lives in Delaware with his wife and three children.

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