Torah to Go - Parashat Acharei Mot It is difficult to imagine that with all the cleaning, cooking, preparing, and more cleaning that characterizes Passover and the time leading up to it, that Passover is actually a holiday where we celebrate our freedom. But yet, the Passover Seder is characterized as a feast of freedom, where every ritual is meant to remind us of the transition from slavery to freedom that our ancestors went through. But how do these reminders work? To answer this, I will bring an example from the Passover Haggadah, and one from this weeks Torah portion, Acharei Mot. In the Haggadah, at the end of the Magid section, where we tell the story of the exodus from Egypt, we recite the following line: In each generation, we are obligated to see ourselves as though we came out of Egypt. As we sit at the feast of freedom, our tradition obligates us to stop, take a moment from the remembering and commemorating, and actually try to imagine that we were among those who came from Egypt and moved from slavery to freedom. We need to imagine what that was like to have been a slave, so that we gain a greater appreciation for the freedom we have. This is part of what it means to celebrate freedom, having the luxury of looking back at our time as slaves, knowing that now we are free. Turning to this weeks Torah reading, Parashat Acharei Mot, we are given another example of how we are to remind ourselves of the fact that we are free: by not reverting to the ways of our oppressors, the Egyptians. The Torah tells us in Leviticus 18:3, You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt. The Torah is teaching us here that although we are free from the slavery we experienced in Egypt, we are not free to act like the Egyptians who enslaved us. Broadly speaking, we should not become the oppressors whom we ran away from (which is ironic, considering how oppressing the preparation and rules of Passover can feel). Instead, the Torah tells us in the next verse, we are to follow the laws of God, which clearly tell us not to oppress our fellow human beings. As you gather together with your families and friends for the Passover Seder next week, I urge you to fulfill both of these imperatives, to remember what it was like to come out of Egypt, and not repeat the actions of those who oppressed us in slavery. May we all merit to see a time where all of our fellow human beings can do the same. Ilan Schwartz STS Rabbinic Intern
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 20:48:47 +0000
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