Rabbi Daniel Dorsch

Celebrating Freedom Through

assover

BY RABBI DANIEL DORSCH

The origins of Passover are found in the book of Exodus. During the 10th plague, when Moses and God send against Pharaoh the death of the first born, the angel of death “passes over” the Israelite homes that have been marked with lamb’s blood. It’s not exactly a pretty association to have with the name of the holiday.

Perhaps, it is for this reason that many Jews prefer to call the holiday by its Hebrew name: Pesach, which refers to the celebratory Pesach (pascal) sacrifice eaten by families in post-biblical times to commemorate the Exodus each year. Playing on words, Torah commentator Yehudah Leib Alter (1847-1905), known as the Sfas Emes, wrote that the word Pesach may be broken into two words: Peh-sach, meaning “a hungry mouth.”

His point, of course, has to do not only with how Jews arrive hungrily to our Passover dinner, called a Seder, but also with the spiritual nourishment that Jews aspire to gain from the entire Pesach experience. At the Seder, most of the food we eat is embedded with deep symbolic meaning. Matzah is the bread of the Israelites that was prepared in haste as they ran toward their liberation after 400 years of slavery. We dip parsley, representing spring, in salt water, representing the tears that the Israelites shed under the lashes of their Egyptian taskmasters. Similarly, when we recite the 10 plagues, we spill a drop of wine as a tear for each plague, remembering the suffering of ordinary Egyptians that, sadly, was a necessary step on our journey to freedom.

To further help aid in our spiritual nourishment, the Haggadah (the book that we use on Passover) creates an order and a framework for telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt. For most Jewish families, the kind of Seder that goes on, and the content that gets used, varies by who is participating. My 93-year-old grandfather runs a traditional Seder, where he reads all 14 lengthy steps of the Haggadah in Hebrew, from start to finish. In our home, with two young children, we use “plague bags,” masks, stickers and all kinds of costumes as tools to tell the story. To encourage children’s participation, we also give them candy and other sweets as an incentive.

Looking for help in making a creative Seder in your home? Today, there are new Haggadahs being published, as different rabbis, artists, authors and Jewish organizations compete for space on the Jewish Seder table. In addition to there being no shortage of free resources and Seder supplements online, an Amazon search lists more than 4,000 possible Haggadahs available for purchase.

With the state of the world over the past two years, there is no doubt in my mind that Jews around the world this year are hungering not only for spiritual nourishment, but also for communal gathering. Like so many Jews who have spent the past two years yearning for freedom, I look forward to celebrating Pesach once again with my family and friends this year.

Rabbi Dan Dorsch serves Congregation Etz Chaim in Marietta. He is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and holds a master’s degree in synagogue education.