Passover - A Festival of Memory

The following appeared as an unsigned Editorial in the Jewish Journal - Boston North in the March 18, 2010 issue. http://tinyurl.com/ygrqvhl

The festival of Passover celebrates one of the formative events in the life of the Jewish people. It would be tempting to call it a celebration of history, but there is a difference.


 The Haggadah tells us, “In every generation, each of us must see ourselves as if we personally had come out of Egypt.” We are to personalize the experience, to internalize it. The Torah tells us, on numerous occasions, to remember the exodus, to remember that we were once slaves in Egypt.




There is a difference between history and memory. History is largely an exercise in taking events from the past and analyzing them, maybe for an educational exercise, maybe as a means of preventing the recurrence of past mistakes. History is impersonal, and the past always remains the past, never brought up to date.





Memory is different. We see this through a variety of rituals in Jewish traditions, especially the seder, when we reenact the exodus and the slavery in Egypt. Past is made present, and we are there. There is no past, present or future. Time is stratified, and we are inserted into those events that we recall from millennia before. The past is virtually present and alive, a part of our being. And it has relevance in our present lives.






For Passover celebrates redemption, enjoining us in a belief that there is always a better day ahead for the Jewish people. It celebrates freedom, a concept that seems hard wired into the mindset of the Jew, who has always treasured freedom not only for himself, but for anyone shackled and enslaved.




 And it celebrates responsibility, the oft repeated mitzvah that we are to show love and concern for the stranger, because we were strangers in the land of Egypt.






But unless we take an active part in passing this memory and our connection to it on to the next generation, this memory will be lost. We are all responsible for bringing this memory to life in our homes and throughout our community, to insure that this memory is not forgotten.