The Haggadah states, in every generation a person is obligated to regard himself as if he had come out of Egypt, as it is said: “You shall tell your child on that day, it is because of this that the L-rd did for me when I left Egypt.”
There are – at least — two ways to understand this phrase. The first is for us to sit at the seder and imagine ourselves living in an ancient world, enslaved, and suffering and then experiencing the undulated joy of the Exodus. The second is for us to sit at the seder and contemplate what enslaves us in our lives today. Is it our commute to work? Our reliance on technology? Living for the past year through a pandemic?
The students in 6th and 7th grade Navi addressed this idea this week in class in preparation for Passover and developed a third option: to combine the two approaches. Yes, we sit at the seder and connect to our past, and at the same time, we think about how many of the ideas expressed at the seder are relevant to our lives today. We discussed a few ways to “own” the story and some ideas to incorporate into the conversations around the table.
As the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks said: “Education is the conversation between the generations. An army protects a country. Education protects a civilization.” May this Passover celebration protect us and inspire us going forward.
Have a wonderful holiday.
Morah Rivky