Nothing is too impossible to overcome

MICHELE MARR

It’s easy, too easy really, for many of us living in this prosperous

nation to take our comfort and freedom for granted. But the Jews who

celebrate Passover each spring are far less likely to.

In their personal lives or through their heritage, they have

tasted life without freedom first-hand -- or at least rubbed elbows

with it. At any given time for thousands of years, somewhere in the

world, Jews have had their freedom taken away. So, the idea of our

freedom being at risk today doesn’t seem so remote to them.

Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, which begins this year on the

evening of April 5, remembers the extraordinary liberation of the

Hebrews from their enslavement in Egypt more than 2,000 years ago.

The name Pesach comes from a verb that means, to protect, to have

compassion, or to pass over. It refers to God’s protection of the

Hebrews during the 10th plague -- the death of all firstborn children

-- inflicted on Egypt to encourage Pharaoh to set the Hebrews free.

Even if we haven’t read the eight-chapter biblical account of

Egypt’s 10 plagues and Israel’s exodus, we are more than likely

familiar with the story of God parting the Red Sea to allow Moses and

his people to escape Pharaoh’s army, all of who then drowned in the

closing sea.

On the first night of Passover, the long Exodus narrative is

recounted as if those remembering the story had themselves come out

from under Egypt’s oppression to freedom.

This narrative is part of the Passover Seder, a formally ordered

meal that also incorporates songs and symbolic foods -- bitter herbs

and vegetables, a shank bone, charoset, a vegetable and a roasted egg

-- related to the Passover story.

The bitter herbs and vegetables symbolize the bitterness of

slavery; the charoset, a mixture of apples, nuts, spices and wine,

represents the mortar used by the Hebrews in Egyptian buildings; the

shank bone and the roasted egg symbolize the sacrificial lamb and the

festival sacrifice offered at Passover during biblical times.

With its story, its songs and its symbols, the meaning of Passover

for today is not lost on those who celebrate it.

“This year, many people will reflect on the freedom we enjoy in

America and we will also speak about the greatest threat to our

freedom [now] -- those who use the violence of terrorism in the hopes

of destroying that freedom [we] hold dear,” said Rabbi Stephen

Einstein, of Congregation B’nai Tzedek and past president of the

Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council. “Sitting at the Seder,

families talk at length about the implications of the Exodus

experience for life today.”

Families will also offer thanks, Einstein said, for the men and

women who by serving in the armed forces protect our freedom, and

they will especially remember those who have died in our defense.

“I don’t want to paint a picture worse than it is, but the threat

of terrorism is very real both in the United States and in Israel,

which causes fear and a feeling of almost helplessness,” said Rabbi

Aron David Berkowitz of Congregation Adat Israel.

Passover tells the story of a people who had been in slavery for

hundreds of years, with no conceivable means to free themselves from

the affliction they endured under the rule of the most powerful

empire of their day.

“Yet God, through many miracles and wonders, freed the entire

people and brought them to the Promised Land,” Berkowitz said.

On Monday evening, Jewish families worldwide will gather for their

Passover Seder not only to remember the liberation of their ancestors

but also to participate in it. They will mourn oppression and rejoice

in freedom.

“The message [of Passover] is, simply put, that there have been

menaces in the past and there have been situations that seemed to be

very complex and almost impossible to get out of; yet good was

victorious and good will be victorious,” Berkowitz said. “We have to

have faith that things are going to turn around.

“Passover [reflects] our faith that God will free us from this

menace [of terrorism] and through his on-going miracles ultimately

truth and goodness will overcome evil.”

As Berkowitz sees it, these are times made to goad us and

encourage us to stand up for what is right, to be willing to fight

for it and not quick to give up.

He quoted from the prophet Micah, “As in the days of your going

out of Egypt I will show you wonders.” Micah 7:15

Then he said, “My prayer and hope is that will be soon in our

day.”

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She

can be reached at [email protected].