Do Not Pass Over

Frustration takes no effort. It comes easily. People do not have to be taught to be impatient, angry, or bitter. It happens moment-to-moment at stop lights. On the other hand, forbearance does take effort. Kindness often requires restraint and understanding.

Think of all the evil perpetuated throughout history. The last century has seen unprecedented murder. The lesson? Intolerance and evil comes naturally to us.

Pesah has many lessons to teach and one of them is the positive transmittal of love, dedication, and connection to things larger and more expansive than ourselves.

How many times is the idea repeated during these holy days that we have an obligation to reformat the way that we treat one another? From the most basic element that we were once slaves and therefore must have compassion to the underling to the tale of the four children we reemphasize the notion that we are the holders of a great truth that MUST not be forgotten or else we are truly lost. What is that truth?

Radio personality Earl Nightingale once told the story of an angry father yelling at his 12-year old son, “Why don’t you grow up??!”

Struggling to control his tears the boy replied between sobs, “That’s what I’m trying to do!”

One of the biggest tasks assigned to us a Jews is not to destroy. And what greater acts of destruction is there than the destruction of potential? In a moment of frustration which flares into anger we can undo years of good will. A word uttered in anger can lay waste to a career; it can cause a marital rift; it can make a breach in a family that is not repairable.

The power of Passover is seen when the basic cell of humanity, families, come together and look past all the wounds and hurts they have sustained. It is also when we are commanded to invite the stranger into our homes to partake of the Pesah celebration. Their status and education are irrelevant as we were all slaves. It was not just the intelligentsia or rich that was targeted for enslavement or murder. We are “one” on this night. In other words, we expand our small circle of blood relations to encompass a broader love.

Rabban Gamliel instructs us to “feel as if we were redeemed personally:” Why is feeling redeemed so vital? When we were freed we rejoiced. We fell into the arms of one another and wept- whether in the DP camps of Europe or declared independent in 1948 or crossing the Sea of Reeds towards freedom we ignored our differences and swept away ire and disappointments.

Now what if this kind of feeling would be present all our days? Surely, the Messiah would enter when we open our doors at the seder.