“Didn’t we just tell this story last year?” These words, or some like them, have probably been said by or to you about the holiday of פסח/Pesach/Passover and its beginning celebration – the סדר/Seder. Over generations, the Jewish people have successfully preserved this meaningful and beautiful ritual through the hard work of personalizing and innovating it. The words of the הגדה/Haggadah are very clear about the obligation to do this:
בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם.
“In each and every generation a person is required to see himself as if he went out from Egypt.” This text is from the משנה/Mishnah which was codified in the year 200CE. In fact, the basic skeleton of the סדר is written in the 10th chapter of the section of the משנה about פסח. It’s common text many of us are familiar with and it’s shared in both Ashkenazi and Sephardi הגדהות/Haggadot/Haggadah. Rabbi Marc Angel’s, A Sephardic Passover Haggadah, uses this text. But there’s another tradition that’s observed in many Sephardi הגדהות as seen in the next text:
בְּכָל-דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לְהַרְאוֹת אֶת-עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם.
“In each and every generation a person is required to show himself as if he went out from Egypt”. One little letter, in one of the words, changes the entire message from seeing oneself to showing oneself. The implication is we’re commanded to show other people and teach other people that we were slaves. This text presses us to lean into the importance of educating other people around us and not to just teach ourselves. This variant of the text comes from the רמב”ם/Rambam’s work. In theמשנה תורה/Mishneh Torah, he stated the following:
בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לְהַרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא בְּעַצְמוֹ יָצָא עַתָּה מִשִּׁעְבּוּד מִצְרַיִם (משנה תורה הלכות חמץ ומצה ז:ו)
“In each and every generation a person is required to show himself as if he, himself, went out now from the enslavement of Egypt.”
His words are much more in depth than either of the other texts and are more instructive. We’re required to show others that the story continues even now and that we’re all still leaving the Egyptian enslavement in our own time. To understand we’re each still leaving enslavement forces us to be more active in the liberation of ourselves and those around us.
The difference between seeing ourselves as slaves, and showing others we’re slaves, tells us two very different essential messages to be conveyed during the holiday. We’re required to experience the liberation ourselves, and we’re required to see that we’re a part of the continuing story. At the same time, it will never be enough for the Jewish people to see themselves, individually, as having lived this story… we must help others find their part of this story and teach them they’re also a continuing link in this generational chain.
In the הגדה we use, A Different Night by the Shalom Hartmann Institute, this page is illustrated by showing the generations of oppression to which our people have been subjected to over history. Last week we were reminded that oppression is not history but still a current event. The violent terrorist attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, was a stark reminder that we’re in this together and no matter where or when a Jew is found, they must see themselves as being part of our people and our history. We continue to look forward to the light of a world without hatred and animosity. Waiting will take longer than any of us expected to, but we know that someday it will come. On that day, we might be able to change the text again to reflect that slavery is something to be seen only as ancient history.
