Freedom of Curiosity
April 20, 2024
Earlier this week, the LFJCC hosted an interfaith seder experience in partnership with the ADL and Coast Roots Farm. Several community leaders and friends of other faiths joined members of our Jewish community to participate in the sensory storytelling of the Passover seder.
As we moved through each page of the Haggadah, I felt the push and pull of the Exodus story. Passover is the holiday to celebrate freedom, yet the seder is designed to pull us back into the story of slavery, to taste the pain and tears of our ancestors juxtaposed with the sweetness of our deliverance from slavery and our resilience to be free people in every generation. I find it refreshing to sit in the discomfort of many emotions happening at the same time.
However, I find that most people I know tend to bifurcate our experiences, judgments, and emotions. Some things are seen as either good or bad, helpful or harmful, real or fake. As we choose to create distance from one end of the spectrum to the other, it narrows our capacity to recognize when we are experiencing both the good and the bad at the very same time. Some people like to say, “There are good times and there are bad times,” but in reality, they are just times — moments in which there is good, bad, and everything else happening simultaneously.
The seder encourages us to build our capacity to see, feel, and taste more than one perspective at the same story by asking big questions. At my seder table this year, I hope my family and I will ask ourselves not only the four questions written in the Haggadah but also new questions that reflect on the current and unfolding complexities of Jewish today.
My first question is: What can we hold space for at our seder table that in other times of daily life we would not consider even for a moment? Can we lean into the principle of “machloket l’shem shamayim,” which translates to “a dispute for the sake of heaven”? This concept acknowledges that multiple perspectives can be valid and valuable, even if they conflict and even if they bring us deep discomfort. Can we encourage respectful debate and recognize that truth and emotions are always multifaceted?
My second question is: What have we learned about the principle of “kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh” (all of Israel is responsible for one another) in the past year? Can we explore how the interconnectedness of the Jewish people has changed and what more are we responsible for that we did not see or feel before? How will our collective responsibility to each other strengthen foundational aspirations to reach a time in which diverse perspectives are valued so that we can ensure the well-being of the community as a whole?
My third question is: What are we enslaved to without even realizing it? At my seder table, I often play “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley. Not just because a good reggae tune makes any celebration better, but because the song inspires the question of what it might take to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery. Bob says that nothing but ourselves can free our minds. So what will it take for us to free our minds?
As always, the best questions have many answers and they usually prompt more questions.
While the Haggadah may be the same or similar to the one you read last year, you are not the same. I hope you will join me in asking yourself good, hard, complicated questions this Passover. And if you choose to, let’s celebrate that we have the freedom to be curious about our world, about each other, and ourselves.
May this season of freedom bring freedom to everyone who is enslaved especially to our brothers and sisters being held captive in Gaza.
Chag Pesach Sameach,
Betzy Lynch, CEO
