Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote, "SOME THOUGHTS THIS PESACH
1)
1)
We are told to see ourselves, not just our ancestors, as if we, not just them 3400 years ago, participated in the exodus from Egypt. & every year, we read the story for ourselves & our children, to remind us, anticipating the feast that goes along w/the event. 2)
But, just a thought, do we really internalize what happened as we should ? Do we really identify w/any more than a surface understanding, what this meant to them & what it needs to mean for us. 3)
Just maybe, with this Corona Virus emergency, we can use some of the feelings of disruption and frustration to understand better than ever before. 4)
3400 years ago, our people huddled in their homes in Goshen, waiting for the night to pass, having prepared - having packed up all the things they wanted to take w/them, having put aside foods, planning for the trip they were told they would have shortly. 5)
Imagine the fear of what was happening outside their doors. Imagine the concern of what would happen the next day, fear of the unknown, fear of all the scenarios that probably went though their minds,... 6)
almost a fight between the wanted prospect of freedom & the fear of what Egypt would do, & the hardships ahead, & would they die in the desert. 7)
We are sheltering in place as they say, worried about how to pay bills tomorrow, how to shop for what we need. Multiply that 100 times to feel what those people feared. 8)
They were being asked to give up the security of their homes, the only lives they knew, & sure, they had to pay taxes that they received no benefit from, & had few freedoms of choice in Egypt, & were periodically persecuted,... 9)
but they knew how to live & survive there. & they were being asked to follow some guy (Moshe) who could not even speak all that well, away from everything they knew, to face a long, hard, march, to go out of Egypt into the desert,... 10)
where there may not be even food to sustain them and their families. Scary. See ourselves as them. Feel the fear. Feel the worry. 11)
And what was all this for - all the fear, the sacrifice, It was for 2 purposes. (1) To take a people away from the domination & control of another people, .... 12)
& (2) To create a distinct & special people of them where they could freely express their own culture, have their own system of laws & beliefs, & that is the definition of freedom. Not just to be a free people. But first to be a people, a nation. 13)
& that is why we celebrate this holiday. & that is how, if we do this right, we must see ourselves.
&, let’s be frank. Are we Jews a free people today? 14)
&, let’s be frank. Are we Jews a free people today? 14)
@threadreaderapp please unroll
