Word vs Deed
"This is the bread of affliction...All who are bent with hunger come and eat."
By the time we read this passage, we are seated, our hands are washed, the wine is poured, the table is crowded. And only now we invite the poor to join us?
Maybe this passage should be read a week, or a month before Passover, when there would still be time to issue a meaningful invitation to a hungry person. But there is no provision in Judaism for a pre-seder seder. Is the Haggadah being disingenuous? How, as we fill our bellies with brisket, can we mourn the existence of hunger in the world and not feel like hypocrites? Is the point that on all other nights we eat and don't speak of hunger, but tonight we speak of it? In Judaism, it is not the thought that counts but the deed. Are we supposed to get up right now and find a hungry person to feed?
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