The View from the Other Side
As we approach the final days of Pesach, I’m always struck that we put so much emphasis on the beginning of Pesach and the seder and the telling of the story of the plagues and the Exodus – and rightfully so, since so much of the emphasis of the holiday is around those moments of the seder and the meal.
But we also should pay attention to the conclusion of Pesach and the significance of these final days. It’s no accident that we read the story of the splitting of the Red Sea and the Israelites’ crossing over on the seventh day of Pesach. When we really understand the story of the Exodus, we see that there are actually two different kinds of redemption that are told in this story: There is the story we know from the Haggadah from the seder, the story of the bad things that happen to us, and how they stopped; and in life there is that kind of redemption, the end of difficult times in our life. But the end of hard times is not a complete redemption, and so we have also the story of the splitting of the Red Sea, the triumphant escape of the Jewish people, and the moment at which they leave the boundaries of Egypt. They cross through the sea, they merge on the other side, and they are in the wilderness, as their own people, a free people. And that’s the path of liberation that takes us not just out of hard times, but into the promise of good things, the ability to be a free nation with our own destiny, on our way to our own land.
As we, this year, approach the final days of Pesach, it’s a good time to think about ourselves: now that we’re through the seder, now that we’ve considered the hard times and we’ve moved through, what are the good redemptions that we are looking forward to? What are the new opportunities? What are the hopes that we have for this time, a time that is not only a physical springtime but a spiritual springtime as well?
Rabbi Abe Friedman
