Passover and Shabbat Unite: Thoughts Toward the East, Toward Liberation, and a Better America and World

Thinking of all in Narrow Places this Pesach, and a lovely piece by Rabbi Sharon Brous of Ikar

Tonight, I think of Ukraine. I think of Tel Aviv.

I am grateful everyone I know has been safe, and the loved ones of those I know in Israel are safe.

I also think of Palestine, and the suffering she’s endured.

And though it does not compare, I do think of Russia and her suffering and remember that hurt people—both toxic and irredeemable like their leader, and scarred and moving toward betterment like so many of his countrymen—lash out and hurt people.

Passover is about redemption and freedom, and I hope all peoples in Narrow Places tonight and for the next 8 nights—and all nights to follow—find their liberation and lift up others along that treacherous journey instead of smashing people down on the way out.

In Hebrew it is yetziat mitzrayim, literally “emerging or leaving from the narrow place.” This, our origin story, has animated and sustained the Jewish people for thousands of years. It’s read not as a remembrance of a one-time event but as an eternal promise, a frame of reference for all future struggles — including those we face in our time and our own country.

Rabbi Sharon Brous, Ikar of Los Angeles in the New York Times, April 14, 2022

Rabbi Brous rights eloquently about America’s history and Black liberation below.

Imagine a Bible With No Moses, No Story of the Exodus

Rabbi Sharon Brous, New York Times, April 14, 2022

“America, too, needs a redemption narrative, a shared story for the America being born in our time. Perhaps the Exodus from Egypt, once deemed so dangerous that it had to be excised from some Bibles, will awaken our moral imagination as we strive to write a new story for this nation. I still believe that together we can build a redeemed society. A multiracial democracy, rooted in equal justice that defends the dignity of every person and strives to embody the great, age-old vision of collective liberation.”

Full Op-Ed at the NY Times