Man lives in fear of chaos. So much do we direct the consequences of unsystematic and erratic behavior that we have structured our world in the hope that chaos can be obliterated and our lives trouble-free. In mathematics, we have a base ten, an artificial ordering the space: calendrically, monthly and yearly systems replete with checks and balances; money and possessions to create rewards for behavior and talent; perceived steady rhythms of the heart and blood pressure as indicators of health; balanced books; consistent sleeping patterns; cars that look and function alike; basic world governments, etc.. When one of these artifices breaks down, our world begins to crumble. The car emitting colored smoke, the heart developing an irregular beat, an eclipse --all these invoke great fear and agitation in humanity. It breaks down our sense of order.
The Exodus from Egypt and accompanying plagues is an event rife with chaotic occurrences. Natural forces go berserk as the Nile turns bloody and flies infest every available space. For Egypt, the world turns upside down. The order and steady predictable patterns are turned on their head. One plague makes it impossible to tell when the sun rises – it is eternal blackness. The most frightening of them all is when the Destroyer stalks through the night, ruthlessly slaying the first born of each household. Terror is rampant and at its apogee.
The mind cannot fathom the depth of anguish at the universe losing its balance. Imagine. One slight dislocation in a day, say, a beehive in the attic, is enough to instill fear and anxiety. Here is a world, magnified to encompass an entire civilization that is haywire.
Sages throughout the millennia have been perplexed by the events of the Biblical narrative. “Why is it,” they wonder, “that God was no merciful in freeing the slaves?” More lives could have been spared while God thwarted the plans of the evil ones. Further, why do we consistently retell the story? Would it not be better, more wholesome, to forget the terrible past?
The portrayal of God’s actions in the Passover story, however, is one that acts within the boundaries of nature. God does not exceed the self-ordained limits of the universe. He acts within them.
The vermin, cattle disease, frogs, all lie within the realm of the natural, if bizarre. The Master of Universe does not snap His celestial fingers and changes the order of the cosmos. He does nt inexplicably lift the enslaved from the land of enslavement. Instead, He brings “signs.” Topsy-turvy signs. Boils on the entire populace. Hail. Locusts.
It’s obvious that the Bible wishes to teach some lessons to Humanity about God, nature and us. The function of “signs” is for direction. The Holy One supplies directives, not a fait accompli.
Order, and the creation of order, is part of the fabric of man. He cannot dispense with the need to self-impose strict rules and methods in dealing with his inner world and environment. But order is, and this is crucial, God’s gift.
It is His to give: it is His to take away. The regular tides of the ocean happen only with the consent of the Eternal. So we retell the story of when God dispossessed us of his bequest to us on Passover. It is a long epic but the stirring one. On the eve of the long tale of how God caused nature to go awry in order to give humanity a sense of who was really in charge. It is an emphatic story wherein we are commanded “that everyone feel as if God redeemed him personally from slavery.”
Passover is the experience of an imminent God, one who dwells with His people. The festival of unleavened bread is a ceremony of reenactment. The pain and confusion of the people traumatized by God’s wrath is relived through the written word and traditional observances. The evening follows a carefully ordered service, the impact of which is to make the participant feel like an eyewitness to this age-old event. Passover is the time of understanding and empathy with those who suffer for the price of freedom (and no revolution can happen without losers) connection with the Divine, who elected to let humanity choose between good and evil and the importance of natural order -- our lives would be terror without it. In fact, they were.
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