Fighting for a healthy climate is tiring work. The stakes are unimaginably high, and progress is distressingly slow. Can we avert a bleak planetary future? Is “winning” against the climate crisis even possible?
On Pesach, we can answer this question: Yes, it is. To find hope, consider this teaching of the Meor Einayim, the 18th century Hasidic Rebbe of Chernobyl – yes, that Chernobyl, in Ukraine: The Meor Einayim asks why, on the spiritual plane, Israelites deserved to be redeemed. After all, they were totally absorbed into Egyptian society and practiced idol worship. And even if they deserved it, who’s to say they would go along with God’s plan?
His answer: “In Egypt, Israel performed the entire Passover Seder that night in the form in which we do, and they told the story of the Exodus [before it even happened], for they believed that they would certainly leave Egypt...Through this act of chesed [loving-kindness] that they brought forth, Israel was redeemed. And through Nisan in the future we shall be again redeemed…”
Something strange certainly happened on the night of 15th Nisan in Egypt. The Torah says that the Jews ate the Korban Pesach [the Passover sacrifice], their first act of independence, and, in the understanding of the Meor Einayim, they performed the very Seder we perform… before the Exodus even happened!
I believe the Meor Einayim is imparting a powerful lesson about redemption. Even if they did not literally recite the contents of the Maxwell House Haggadah, on a metaphorical level Israel must have told the story of the Exodus. Until that night, the depressing inevitability of slavery was fixed within them. A world without slavery was unimaginable. To be redeemed, they first had to dream of a different reality, to tell each other a revolutionary narrative new to world history: the strong shall not prevail, might does not make right, G-d cares for the downtrodden. Only by imagining, in some detail, how they might be redeemed, could they finally open their doors the following morning and journey towards the wilderness and redemption.
As we sit around the seder table, Egypt sits within us and around us. Climate change, that symptom of human ignorance, avarice, and short-sightedness, continues. War rages, viruses invade our bodies, and authoritarianism gnaws at our body politic. Yet redemption awaits. Disaster is not inevitable.
But to journey towards our redemption, we must first imagine it. For one week of the year, Pesach invites us to forget about our cynicism, our worry; set aside the gloom of inevitability that obscures our hopes for our lives and for the world. And dream big: what will a redeemed society look like? How will a healthy, functioning planet operate? And what is the surprising, hope-affirming story that will soon bring it about? Tell the story. Articulate the hope. Prepare for redemption.
By Rabbi Hody Nemes
JCAN NYC Steering Committee Member
Feel free to share the above teaching at your seder. And consider these wonderful resources to bring climate concerns to your seder table.
Climate Resources For Your Seder:
Four Questions about Climate Change: An addition to the Four Questions – reminding us of the questions we refuse to ask and the actions we refuse to take to address climate change, from JCAN (of Massachusetts).
A New Ecological Haggadah: Get inspired with help from Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, author of The Promise of the Land, a haggadah in conversation with nature. View highlights from last year’s Passover Earth Seder, starring Rabbi Bernstein and many talented participants, or order a copy of The Promise of the Land.
Earth Justice Seder: Print or view this free Haggadah focused on environmental justice, courtesy of the Religious Action Center, COEJL, and GreenFaith.
Freedom from industrial farming: Consider limiting or eliminating meat, a major contributor to climate change, from your Pesach this year.