A Dvar Torah in Honor of Pesach
April 6, 2020
Aviva Seiden, Middle School Dean
The Jewish calendar is set up in such a way that Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) always comes on the heels of Pesach. Pesach begins on the eve of the 15th of Nisan, and 12 days later, on the eve of the 27th of Nisan, we begin our commemoration of Yom HaShoah.
In every generation each person is obligated to see himself as if he came out of Mitzrayim (Egypt).
The date for Yom HaShoah was chosen because of its connection to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, not specifically its proximity to Pesach. However, the more time goes on, the more I think the connection is intentional, and if not intentional, at the very least, apropos.
בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלוּ הוּא יֶָָצֶָא מִמִּצְרַָים
In every generation each person is obligated to see himself as if he came out of Mitzrayim (Egypt).
Growing up, a big discussion at our seder was about this concept. Why isn’t telling the story enough? Why are we obligated to behave as though it is our story personally and not simply one from our history? What changes for people, for human beings, if we put ourselves in the position of others?
First, we learn empathy. To tell a story as though it is our story forces us to feel what the experience was like. The seder is designed to help us empathize by putting in triggers for emotion: salt water, charoset, maror. We drain our cups one drop at a time when mentioning the plagues to decrease from the joy of freedom. The whole seder is designed to help us feel what was felt and make the story our story.
To this point, telling the story as though we were there gives us ownership over the legacy and makes us responsible for continuing to tell it. And it is here that I feel the strong connection between Pesach and Yom HaShoah. In many ways Yom HaShoah is our modern day Pesach. Our people, collectively, went through a trauma and it is the job of those who come after to not let the world forget. But, telling the story as if it belonged to someone else isn’t enough. It has to be our story. We have to own it. As we get farther and farther away from the Holocaust it will feel more and more like Pesach: something that happened a long time ago. Once something happened before your time, what’s the difference if it was 100 years before or 2000? And so it is our responsibility to share the same message about the Shoah as we do about Pesach. In every generation each person is obligated to see himself as if he came out of Auschwitz. As a people we have a collective history, and as a people we must continue to share that history with those who come after us.
Today, as we enter our chag, we are also making history. The story of this Pesach and this time in our lives will be told for years to come, likely from generation to generation. We may not yet know how or when the story ends, but we know it will end, and when it does it will be our responsibility to tell the story and to learn from it. I am wishing each of you a break filled with health, love, and hope.
Chag Sameach