The Responsibility of Freedom
As a young child, I remember driving to grandma’s house the week before Passover to help schlep her folding chairs from storage and prepare the table for seder. The long hallway leading from the elevator to her apartment smelled of chicken soup and the many recipes that she and her Jewish neighbors were preparing days before the holiday. My grandmother always remarked after seder how long it took her to prepare for the Passover meal, and how quickly we all ate it! We would respond with laughter, finish our last spoonfuls of dessert and then rush to the living room before anyone could suggest that we reopen the Haggadah to offer the traditional post-meal readings.
In hindsight, I understand that after-dinner interaction differently. Buried in my grandmother’s humor was a call for us to slow down and allow the weightiness of Passover and our festive celebration to linger. For us to remain at the table, perhaps not only to finish reading from the Haggadah, but to actually wrestle with its message. On Passover we retell our people’s story, a journey from slavery to freedom. The Haggadah reminds us that we know the bitterness of slavery, and therefore as free people, it is our obligation to look beyond ourselves and acknowledge with love all who remain enslaved today, all those who are unable to live the life they deserve and wish to live.
Passover begs the question: what does our freedom compel us to do? This question cannot be answered fully while singing around the seder table, nor is it even possible in the seven days of the springtime festival. Truly answering this important question requires action. Consider Passover not as an isolated island of time in the calendar, but a springboard propelling us into the rest of the year with empathy for those who are less fortunate than we and with renewed ambition to help better the world. Passover invites us to rededicate ourselves to our sacred obligation to seek out injustice wherever it exists and to join together in continued efforts to help others in need.
One such initiative is NSCI’s annual Family Promise program, a deeply meaningful service opportunity that you may have heard me discuss before. This year, from June 10-24, three to four families with young children who are experiencing homelessness will sleep in bedrooms set up for them in our religious school classrooms. Each morning, the children participate in local summer programs and their parents either go to work, or if they are unemployed, receive job search training and other services. The families arrive back at NSCI in the evening for a hot, nutritious dinner prepared by NSCI volunteers. After dinner, they will pack their own brown-bag lunches for the next day, engage in restorative activities and spend the night.
Since beginning our partnership with Family Promise two years ago, more than 50 individuals and families from our community have signed up to help host Family Promise guests at NSCI. Again this year, we need volunteers to prepare dinners, dine with our guests, engage with them after dinner, provide food for their lunches, and serve as overnight hosts.
If you have volunteered with us before, we hope that you will sign up again this year, and we encourage others to sign up to help in this important endeavor as well. If you are interested in volunteering this year, please sign up online here. Both Ann Weisberg—anngweisberg@gmail.com—and I are available to answer questions about the volunteer experience.
Although the sweet aromas of our Passover meals have dissipated, and for most of us, the folding chairs and ‘Passover box’ have all been returned to storage, we must remain at the proverbial seder table, and not allow the spirit of Passover to slip from our consciousness. As the Haggadah reminds us, we each know life’s bitter moments, and by God’s grace, many of us now are fortunate to know freedom. Let us, therefore, join together to help others who remain in Mitzrayim—“Egypt” or “a narrow place”—to offer them support and guidance on their journey to freedom.
Warmly,
Rabbi Ryan Daniels
