When my grandfather was alive, we not often noticed eye to eye. Our disagreements had been too quite a few to depend, and so they’d multiply each time we had been collectively. No setting was too sacred for us to forego our spats. Even the Passover Seder might turn into the backdrop to our bickering — the Jewish equal of arguing across the Thanksgiving desk. However regardless of our variations of opinion, we all the time sat collectively on the identical desk. There was all the time room for each of us.
This 12 months, Jews all over the world rejoice Passover in a second of profound trauma and discord introduced on by the bloodbath on October seventh and the continuing conflict and humanitarian disaster in Gaza. And there appear to be fewer chairs round our seder tables. Moderately than arguing vigorously collectively, we’re retreating from each other. Supporters of the conflict are retreating from those that oppose it, and vice versa. We now not sit collectively.
Passover has all the time resonated with me due to its emphasis on peoplehood and values. It’s about an historical neighborhood that was cast by their shared expertise of wandering within the wilderness. And it’s about how this neighborhood acquired its legal guidelines within the technique of wandering, legal guidelines that present a price system that ensures we stay justly and righteously.
However this 12 months, this sense of belonging to a unified individuals has been fractured. And that is leading to a realization that there isn’t any one definition of justice and righteousness. As an alternative, we’re separating into smaller tribes, every strident in our personal perception within the reality of our values.
On the Passover Seder, Jews learn the Haggadah, a ebook that recounts the story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. In latest many years, it’s turn into modern to undertake totally different haggadot to swimsuit eclectic sensibilities. There are humanistic, atheistic, pluralistic, feminist, social justice, and a litany of different haggadot to select from. But, importantly, they every inform the identical story. The interpretations could change however the primary narrative stays the identical. All of them recount the burning bush and the ten plagues. Moses all the time components the Crimson Sea. Whether or not it’s the Rugrats Passover or “The New American Haggadah,” Jews have all the time advised variations on the identical story.
This Passover, six months right into a seemingly unrelenting saga of violence, there isn’t any unifying story that we collectively inform about our modern scenario. As an alternative, there’s widespread divergence in how Jewish individuals view this disaster. The cohesion that Passover has offered Jews for millennia is presently strained in methods I can’t bear in mind and can’t fathom. We’re telling totally different tales and talking totally different languages.
On the Passover Seder, the youngest on the desk asks 4 questions, all to study: How is that this evening totally different from all different nights? In recounting the story of the Exodus, these questions are, finally, answered by the top of the night and the account is handed onto the following technology.
Round Passover tables this 12 months, it’s not simply the youngest who’re asking questions. The ache radiating out from Gaza and Israel, and the anger felt about this battle all over the world, demand that even the elders amongst us ask totally new units of moral questions. We should ask what it means to be secure, merciful, respectable and compassionate. The solutions aren’t so clear lower and they won’t be discovered simply. However there isn’t any possibility aside from to proceed asking.
This Passover, six months right into a seemingly unrelenting saga of violence, there isn’t any unifying story that we collectively inform about our modern scenario.
At a Passover Seder, there’s a second when Jews open the door to their properties as a symbolic gesture of openness to those that wander and want sanctuary. We provide our dwelling and our bounty to the stranger. This 12 months, too many doorways are closing. They’re closing not solely to the strangers of the world however to those that as soon as sat at our seder tables. I’ve heard numerous tales of friendships between Jews, Muslims and Arabs strained or ended. I’ve additionally seen intergenerational divisions widen amongst Jews, as mother and father and kids are pushed aside over their stances on the conflict. As Jews disagree over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, we have gotten strangers to one another.
Historically, the Seder ends with the pronouncement, “Subsequent 12 months in Jerusalem!” At occasions within the lengthy arc of Jewish historical past, this assertion spoke to a deep craving. At different occasions, it felt like a promise. For a lot of Jewish individuals, it was a press release of hope.
“Subsequent 12 months in Jerusalem” rings in a different way this 12 months. It’s extra somber. It’s somber for individuals who misplaced family members on October seventh, for whom their anguish drowns out the sentiment’s hope. It’s somber for many who are devastated by the continued struggling of Palestinians. It’s somber as a result of subsequent 12 months appears thus far off, unsure, and certain filled with extra violence. We’re making this pronouncement with fewer individuals at our tables and with much less goodwill and understanding.
When my grandfather and I argued at our seder desk, it was not all the time nice. Actually, it was usually painful. However we might argue as a result of we had been prepared to come back collectively. That too many people are turning away from sitting collectively, even when solely to argue and disagree is unsustainable. It’s its personal tragedy in a second of untold tragedies.
I’ll finish my Seder, not with the acquainted chorus of “Subsequent 12 months in Jerusalem,” however “Subsequent 12 months, collectively once more.” In any other case, we’re left wandering.
