Religion: A taste of freedom

What does freedom taste like? As Jews celebrate the weeklong holiday of Passover (Pesach) beginning this Saturday night (April 12), the interactive ritual of a Passover Seder provides a rich learning experience to literally taste freedom. 

The book of Exodus details the story of Passover and commands us to teach our children about our past. The Seder, which means Order, follows 15 steps providing a sensory experience of our ancestors’ history leaving ancient Egypt. 

When the ancient Pharoah finally let the Jews leave Egypt, they didn’t have time to prepare bread. Tradition explains the bread baked into a flat unleavened bread called matzah. This matzah is one of the symbols of freedom—and of slavery. 

It is both a bread of affliction and of redemption. Matzah is flat, it does not rise, and on Passover it is forbidden to eat from the five grains (wheat, barley, spelt, rye or oats).

Matzah can be eaten in a variety of ways: with butter, cream cheese, plain, with tomato sauce and cheese as matzah pizza, and even covered with chocolate. Perhaps that is the bread of freedom (especially if using direct or fair trade chocolate where no slave labor was used to make it). 

Near the beginning of the Passover Seder, there is a part called Yachatz, which is the breaking of the middle piece of matzah. Why? One piece is acknowledged as the bread of affliction, remembering the suffering of all who were slaves. The other piece becomes the afikomen (dessert in Greek) and is hidden. It must be found to end the Seder and is traditionally the last item eaten. 

It’s a great activity for the kids to search for the afikomen, receiving a prize. I like to provide a gift of Kosher for Passover Direct Trade Chocolate. 

In the Torah, it mentions that those who left Egypt were a mixed multitude (Exodus 12:38). In other words, it was not only the Jews who escaped from the suffering of Pharoah’s rule. 

As I think about the matzah representing both freedom and affliction, it shows how we are all interconnected. Or in the words of Emma Lazarus, “until we all are free, we are none of us free.” If I truly love my neighbor as myself, that means I love myself and want my neighbor to have the same blessings in life that I have. 

Each Passover we are obligated to see ourselves as if we personally came forth from slavery to freedom. This is so we never forget the pain of being vulnerable. We cannot ignore the suffering of others. This year we are not free when we are still enslaved to hatred, intolerance, ignorance and polarization.

In her book, “From Time to Time: A Journey Through the Jewish Calendar,” Rabbi Dalia Marx writes: “Bondage is not necessarily an external force. Chains can be internal, a form of self-imprisonment.”

Every Passover, we are given the opportunity to literally taste freedom while also considering what it means to escape from an oppressive regime. May the taste of freedom, blended with the pain of bitter enslavement, inspire us to work for freedom for all. 

Rabbi Faith Joy Dantowitz is the rabbi of Congregation Emeth, located in Morgan Hill and serving all of South County. Rabbi Dantowitz can be contacted at ra***@em***.net.

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