First Parish Unitarian UniversalistPassover, A Bitter-Sweet Celebration
Sermon delivered March 24, 2002
at First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton
by Rachel Tedesco
My family was Jewish and I have fond memories from my childhood and youth of Passover Seders at our home in Newton. The whole family was there. Maybe there was a guest or two, maybe a college friend who wasn't Jewish. The dining room table was set with a fine white linen table cloth and our best china. I loved the retelling of the Exodus story and the singing of the traditional Passover songs. I remember the Hillel sandwiches. We made these a little differently at our house from what was described in the reading this morning. We added the sweet haroses, the chopped apple, nut, wine and spice mixture, in order to make the fresh, pungent horseradish more palatable. The brittle matzah usually crumbled at the first bite, and it was a challenge to eat it neatly, but I always enjoyed it. The bitter maror, the sweet haroses and the matzah made an interesting mixture.
Like the Hillel sandwich, the message of Passover is bitter-sweet.
That first night of Passover, our family, like all observant Jewish families around the world, celebrated the liberation of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. Yet Passover is not celebrated in the past tense. What I mean is that through the stories and songs, we relived the slavery, the liberation and the exodus as if we were there. The Hebrew Bible pictures a God of history, a God who works through time. But in the Haggadah, the guidebook for the Passover Seder, the writers faithfully follow God's instructions to Moses and Aaron . We heard these instructions in the reading from the book of Exodus: "You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children." The Haggadah is designed to give each Jew the experience of "going from slavery unto freedom." The Passover story, therefore, becomes a timeless story.
Haggadah literally means "the telling." It stands for sharing in the story of Passover. The ancient haggadah has been revised many times by many different groups, including Jewish feminists and progressive Jews. There is even a Unitarian Universalist haggadah. The revised haggadahs have taken on newer meanings.
Some speak of new kinds of enslavement... to false values such as the materialism. And while American Jews celebrate freedom in a democratic society, they are also reminded that other peoples suffer from real slavery and other forms of oppressions in the world. Some haggadahs tell of the slavery of Muslims in Sudan. Some haggadahs tell of the sexual bondage of children and young women around the world. Some tell of the exploitation of migrant farmworkers on American farms and in our orchards. And some tell of the Mexican factory workers just across the Rio Grande... employed by American companies for slave wages and in unsafe working conditions.
Like the Hillel sandwich, the message of Passover is bitter-sweet.
Lest you think these bitter stories are only being told around the Seder table, Jews are encouraged to do more than just talk. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism recently joined with the American Anti-Slavery Group to focus the world's attention on slavery in Sudan. Together they are launching a Passover Project website. As Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center stated in a recent press release, "The hagaddah commands us to `remember the stranger for we were strangers in the land of Egypt.' This is a call to action, a call for us to rise up against slavery and tyranny in our own time."
Then, there is the complicated and difficult issue of Israel. Passover is not only a celebration of the liberation from Egypt, but it commemorates the beginning of the 40 year trek to Canaan, the new homeland promised to the Jews by God. This land is now the land of return. After centuries of suffering from horrible anti-Semitism and persecution in Europe and the Middle East, Jews have made the land of Israel a refuge. It holds the promise of freedom and a just and democratic society. It is truly a sweet land of milk and honey.
Yet this year... at this time, the problems of Israel are particularly troublesome for many politically liberal Jews, and for those like myself of Jewish heritage. I don't have to go into detail with you about the constant rounds of attacks and reprisals... about the heartbreak of the last 18 months. We all know about the Intifada uprising, the unwillingness or inability of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to stop the terrorist attacks. We all know of the heavy-handed response of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli army. Yes, for many the land of Israel is a bitter-sweet reality.
Its an agonizing situation for a people who have historically thought of themselves as God's chosen ones. This means, I hasten to say, not specially favored, but specially burdened. Many Jews think that they are obligated to adhere to a higher moral standard than the rest of the world... to set a good example for others.
Many Jews have comforted themselves through the centuries of anti-Semitism and persecution with the thought that at least as the people of God and as victims they were more sensitive to the suffering and rights of the enslaved and oppressed.
The commandment to remember the stranger was never forgotten. Justice for all people is a core value of Judaism. It is a value which was preached by Jesus as well. We hear it reflected in our sixth UU principle: "the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all."
Today you hear Prime Minister Sharon and his representatives argue the justness of defending against terrorists. You hear the Palestinians argue about the injustice of 35 years of occupation and oppression. These arguments make some sense, but something is left out... It all seems an insolvable dilemma, a massive tangle of claims and counter claims of land rights, charges and counter-charges about unjust violence. Old hatreds lie smoldering only to burst into flames every few years.
My thoughts and prayers this year are with the peace-makers, those of both sides who are urging moderation.. who are urging that a sincere effort be made to stop the fighting, to put down the guns and bombs, to make the first tentative steps toward peace. My thoughts and prayers are with those who recognize the humanity and the just claims of the other side.
We should not forget the hardy few who have labored for peace and understanding in Israel. There is a community in Israel of Jewish and Palestinian citizens called Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam... which translates to The Oasis of Peace. For more than 25 years, these two groups have lived and worked together as equals. This unusual community teaches tolerance, understanding and mutual respect well beyond its borders by being a model for peace and by reaching out through its educational institutions. There is a support group in this country called the American Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. You may be interested in learning more about them.
Another example of American support for peace in the Middle East is the U.S. Interreligious Committee. This is an organization which represents 2,500 Jews, Christians and Muslims. I have no idea whether there are any Unitarian Universalists in that number, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were. Its members include the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the organization for Reform Judaism in this country. The Interreligious Committee is actively supporting Zinni's peace mission to the Middle East.
It's tragic that on Thursday, another Palestinian suicide bomber set off a bomb in Jerusalem to disrupt the peace process. It's ironic that the attack damaged the headquarters of the pro-peace, leftist Meretz Party. A banner outside the office said, "Occupation kills - we want to live in peace." It is clear that nobody is immune from this war.
Yet there are rays of hope for me in this Passover season. The American government has at last sat up and taken notice. Zinni and Chaney are applying pressure for a ceasefire and for talks to begin. But any ceasefire may be as brittle as matzo and shatter like the Hillel sandwich. It will take more than the efforts of the Bush government to bring this violence to an end. It indeed may take a miracle equal to the parting of the Red Sea. It may take months until the old war horses, Sharon and Arafat, are gone from power. It will take the support of many people ... including Americans... who work for peace in Israel. May their numbers grow as Jewish citizens become disillusioned with Sharon and his heavy-handed approach which seems to have backfired. May their numbers grow as Palestinians citizens become disillusioned with Arafat, his corruption and ineptness and realize they have potential allies for peace among their Jewish neighbors.
I have another story to share with you. I attended the Ministers' Convocation earlier this month in Birmingham, Alabama. (Yes, I spent time there with your wonderful minister, Diane Teichert.) During the convocation, this flyer was distributed. On it is a picture of a woman lying down, with a worried expression. Two boys are lying next to her. The older one, a teenager, is apparently asleep; the younger one, a child of four or five, has his hand on the woman's arm and is looking at the camera. Its a very sweet picture. You think she may be the boys' mother. On the reverse side the caption reads, "Irene Siegel, a Jewish American, sleeps in the home of a Palestinian family in Beit Jala as part of a human shield campaign to deter Israeli shelling of Palestinian homes. `Magdalene, my Palestinian hostess, looked at me sideways and said softly, "Are you Jewish?' And I nodded. She threw her arms around me and said, `You know, I love you, Irene. I love you like a sister.' And I cried. And so did she. And then she talked to me until two in the morning about everything - her fears, her pain, her experiences - everything she held inside for so long, surrounded as she is by a community who are all suffering the same pain."
In process theology, there is the belief that we human beings respond to the history behind us, the world around us, and the divine within and beyond us in each moment. We as human beings take the raw ingredients offered to us and respond either constructively or destructively. We as human beings can chose, within certain limits, how we respond to each situation we are in. We can all work together to create or destroy our society and our world.
I pray to the Spirit of Creation that before long the forces for love and understanding, peace and justice will prevail. May the State of Israel and the inevitable Palestinian state together become a Neve Shalom, an oasis of peace in a troubled world.
Blessed be the peacemakers and may they succeed in starting on a path to peace in this Passover season. Amen.