And You Shall Tell Your Children on that Day - The Passover Story

[drwex]

Many of you know I consider myself culturally Jewish - a member of the tribe. I have problems with the religion, and am generally self-identified as a Militant Agnostic (I don't know and YOU DON'T EITHER). But part of being a tribe is hearing and telling the stories of the tribe, and the Passover story is one of the most interesting and, frankly, contradictory of all. Then there are the traditions surrounding it, many (most? all?) of which are unique. I'm going to pick on four things that are usually glossed over in the story tellings but that stick in my brains year 'round.

For one thing, the Passover story is told in the first person. We do not just commemorate the freedom of our ancestors from slavery, we tell of when *we* were freed from bondage in Egypt. I can't think of any other place in the tradition where this sort of direct displacement (what's the right word for it?) happens. The closest I can think of is Yom Kippur on which day Jews personally atone for sins committed by others, taking on the fault or guilt of these sins as if each of us had personally done them, and praying for forgiveness. But that seems more like community or tribal responsibility, whereas Passover is a direct linking of modern people to historical/ancestral situations.

Early on in the story, Moses and his brother Aaron attempt to convince Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. Naturally their legitimacy is challenged. As part of that a magical duel occurs. I forget the details but the climax involves the Egyptian priest casting his staff on the ground where it turns into a snake and threatens the Hebrews. In response, Aaron throws _his_ staff on the ground, where it becomes an even larger snake and eats the Egyptian one. This is, to my knowledge, one of? the? only direct magical action attributed to the Hebrew elders and prophets. There are many examples of miracles - including the famous burning bush and parting of the Red Sea in the Passover story - but these are always attributed as miracles done by G-d, not magical acts done by people. The Judaism I learned was almost entirely anti-magical (sorry anotherjen) and yet here we have a big ole magical duel right in the middle of one of the major stories. What's up with that?

The Passover story also presents huge ethical lessons and dilemmas. Most people know about the plagues that were visited on the Egyptians, each more severe than the last. After each, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and ask for the Hebrews' freedom. And G-d hardens Pharaoh's heart so he refuses to free them and things get worse. Yes, really. Go read the Bible, it's in there. What lesson are we supposed to learn from this? Any explanation I've ever seen requires some serious ethical gymnastics or a huge dose of fatalism. In modern times we're instructed to lessen our own joy (symbolically, spilling a little wine) in remembrance of the suffering brought by each plague. Phone call for Mr Mixed Messages!

Finally, we come to the end of the plagues and the Hebrews flee. Pharaoh changes his mind one last time and sends his army to retrieve the ex-slaves. G-d parts the Red Sea allowing us to cross on dry land, but when the army pursues, the seas close up behind and the army is drowned. The Hebrews celebrate, but are admonished not to, because even the drowned soldiers are children of G-d and their deaths diminish us all. Thus the expression "dancing on the shore of the Red Sea" to describe the kind of celebration of schadenfreude one ought not to do. This is close to the essential core of the attractive bits of Judaism for me. To be victorious as an underdog, and yet not lose our essential connectivity to the rest of the human race is a powerful and important motif.

aroraborealis asked what were her readers' favorite haggadot and I think none of them are any good because all of them skip the _interesting stuff_. I tried writing my own, once. That was a flop. I'm still looking for one that'll focus on the story and minimize the other various ritual bits which are, I admit, nice in their own right, but don't compare to the story itself.

Comments

[roozle.livejournal.com]

The Four Questions by Ori Sherman, illustrated by Lynne Sharon Schwartz is both beautiful and readable, and what I used for telling the Passover story at several seders when my kids were young.

Where did it go? When did it get dropped? I don't know what your childhood seders were like, but that story was never in the traditional seder text. See whole rant on no Moses, leading to your perception of seder after seder that never tells "the Passover story". It's in Exodus, but not in the traditional Haggadah. Now oddly enough, the story of Laban attempting to kill Jacob (who was worse, because by killing Jacob he would've killed the whole Jewish people, whereas pharoah sought to kill "only" the firstborns? Huhhh?) *is* in the traditional text. Another bit that I generally skip.

As I write this, it occurs to me that "the Passover story" is a misnomer. In that, we are not talking here about a story told for the sake of historical accuracy, but a story told for the sake of understanding a particular point. In the case of the seder, we have a ritual that is telling at least four stories. First, the enactment of the passover sacrifice in the temple, carefully without making any pretense that we are actually *performing* the passover sacrifice in the temple; second, the story of Passover that means "God will always redeem his people Israel"; third, the story of Passover that means "history moves from slavery to freedom and from darkness to light"; fourth, and most controversially, the story that says "eventually we will be avenged on our enemies who have attempted and failed to destroy us". That fourth story is very out of fashion in our days and causes much of the cognitive dissonance of the seder. But the rabbis who put the haggadah together to tell these stories were fairly uninterested in the historical story, the one that starts with "once upon a time we were slaves to Pharoh in Egypt" but for the fact that the biblical injunction to tell that story gave them a ritual upon which to hang the stories they felt needed telling.

Interesting idea, us doing a seder together. Perhaps sometime.

[drwex]

I don't know what your childhood seders were like, but that story was never in the traditional seder text.

I believe that. I am pretty sure I pulled it out of reading Torah and commentaries around that time. This of course begs the fundamental question of who put that story together in the first place and why isn't more of Exodus in it?

we are not talking here about a story told for the sake of historical accuracy, but a story told for the sake of understanding a particular point.

Precisely. I totally agree. This is my original point about the Jewish culture and the importance of its stories. That we are specifically commanded to tell _this_ story makes it more interesting and compelling to me.

And poking at the odd bits of the story itself is mostly me figuring out what lesson(s) we're supposed to learn/teach.

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pointer to "The Four Questions". It looks really good and I'll be getting it from the library tomorrow. It's really past time to try to explain more about Passover to The Boy (and Girl) and I need as much help as I can get.