4 minute read
Ran Ukashi, Executive Director
A Message From Ran Ukashi
Executive Director
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The ultimate meaning of Passover is the redemption of the Jewish People not only from slavery, but from their own waywardness after centuries of exile in Egypt. We are all familiar with the story of Moses being raised in the Egyptian royal court, his calling by God to deliver the Jewish People, the ten plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and the ultimate freeing of the Nation of Israel and the beginning of 40 long years in the desert where we received the Torah on Mount Sinai, and—finally—entered the Promised Land of Israel.
However, one oft-forgotten element of the meaning of Passover is why it was necessary in the first place. The Jewish People had fallen to such a low level of holiness, retaining only their Hebrew names, language, mode of dress, and overall Jewish identity, but in many other ways had adopted the traditions and customs of the Egyptians. The Egyptians worshipped idols, engaged in brutal slavery and all other manner of immoral behaviour, which negatively influenced the Jewish People—so much so that even in the face of God’s deliverance did the better part of the Jewish People resort to the building of the golden calf as Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments from God shortly after their deliverance from Egypt.
How then, is Passover a story about redemption? The very name of the Holiday “Passover” refers to the passing of the Angel of Death over the houses of the Jewish People in Egypt, sparing them from the tenth and most terrible plague—the Death of the Firstborn Son, but also alludes to a general state of transience. To pass over from one state of being to the next.
Where the Jews were once wayward, they were now to be honoured with the Holy Torah.
Where the Jews were once slaves, they were now free. Where the fate of the Jews were once in the hands of brutal tyrants, now they had their autonomy under an eternal covenant with God.
And in all of this, Jews were not “passive” in what transpired throughout the events of Passover. While God led them out of Egypt “with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,” the Jews did their part by committing to being better, to obeying God’s commandments, to trusting in God, to turn their backs on Egypt and toward their own destiny, and to understand that this is not the end of their journey, but merely the beginning. The beginning of many other beginnings.
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DR. JONATHAN HOLT, D.M.D.
Unit 1 - 1176 TAYLOR AVENUE WINNIPEG, MANITOBA R3M 3Z4
Happy Pesach!
Phone 204 487 2926 Fax 204 487 3526 EMAIL INFO@HOLTDENTAL.CA WWW.HOLTDENTAL.CA
Today, as always, we can take the message of Passover and incorporate it into our daily lives. At the local level of the Winnipeg Jewish community, we see in every generation the need to engage in active redemption to benefit each other. For instance, the importance of raising and educating our children in the Jewish religion and our traditions was never emphasized more than in the Passover story where the Jewish People had to reacquaint themselves with their faith and Peoplehood.
Today we are fortunate that as a community we can invest time and effort into such endeavours, and as such part of Congregation Shaarey Zedek’s renovation plans includes the creation of an onsite daycare facility in partnership with the Rady Jewish Community Centre to pass on our Jewish tradition to the next generation. This is a joyous form of redemption in which we consistently renew ourselves and our People from generation to generation.
However, in the redemptive message of Passover there is also the unmistakable lesson of the need to stand up to tyranny, and in defence of the Jewish People against those who wish to destroy us.
Pharoah—despite provoking God’s wrath with his insolence, which resulted in the visitation of ten terrible plagues upon Egypt—nevertheless ordered his army to chase, capture, and enslave the fleeing Jewish People once more. Whereas the Egyptians had sought to subdue the Jews out of fear that they were becoming too numerous in the Land of Egypt, and enslaving them to break their spirit, the tyrannical Pharoah wanted nothing more to subdue the Jewish People even when they were no longer a “threat” to Egypt.
So too, today, does the process of redemption play a role in the lives of the Jewish People. Once again, the Jewish People have reconstituted themselves in their ancestral and indigenous homeland in the modern State of Israel, and like so many times in the past we have faced threats against our existence. As we say in the Vehi Sheamda at the Passover Seder year after year: For not only one enemy has risen up to destroy us,
but in every generation they rise up to destroy us.
But the Holy Blessed One, delivers us from their hands.
In recent weeks we have been reminded of this all too familiar theme in Jewish history, that in every generation, there are those who rise up and seek to destroy us—both in body and spirit—and that our redemption is ongoing. In Israel over the past several weeks, fourteen people have been cruelly murdered, and dozens injured in a series of stabbing, vehicle-ramming, and shooting attacks in Israel by vicious terrorists who are part of that dubious legacy we cite yearly when reciting Vehi Sheamda.
But as always, the message of Passover and of the Jewish People as a whole is always to lean towards optimism. We will defeat and outlive our enemies, and rise high above them, and we will continue to strive towards teaching the Torah to the next generation, build our communities, and go from strength to strength.
Chag Pesach Kasher v’Sameach to you and your family,
