Passover’s Paradox: This Night about Rising Up Is a Night of Sitting Down
Ha lachma anya is in the present tense. This, right now, is the bread of affliction. We are asked to invite others in need to come and join us. But why not go out and give others this bread? Why not send it to people in need or as a gift of food for our friends like we do on Purim? Here is a great paradox of Passover. , Although the Seder can be a blueprint for our concern with justice and liberation, the way we tell the story is not about taking action. Instead, the Passover story calks us to inviite, refkect, learn, teach, and give praise.
The haggadah does not tell our story as we might imagine it, beginning with slavery in Egypt and highlighting Moses and Miriam, the heroes of the Exodus. In fact the Haggadah does not mention them at all.
This ia story about what G*d for me. There are only two main players tonight. G*d, whose outstreched hand and mighty arm take the Israelites out of Egypt. And me, each one of us who must see ourselves as if it were us, as individuals that came forth from slavery to freedom.
On other nights, other days we will be the one's to act, to break chains, provide for those who hunger, and repair the world. Tonight we though we sit at our table. We invite all who are hungry to eat and all who hunger for justice, peace, and freedom to come join us.
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