By Rachel Landsberg, JCAN NYC member
Soon we will be celebrating Pesach, the holiday that marks our journey from slavery to freedom. Passover begins, on the first night, with the Seder; we spend the night sitting around the table eating symbolic foods and telling our story. The eating and the storytelling are intertwined, so much so that we have a seder plate (or several) that adorns our table as well as a plate of matzah that is lifted up and covered and uncovered at choice moments throughout the Seder. The symbolic foods of the Seder assist us in telling the story.
Let’s look a bit more deeply into three of the symbolic foods we eat - the matzah, the charoset and the karpas.
As we open up the seder to tell our story, we begin with the words הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא - “This is the bread of poverty that our ancestors ate while in Egypt.” We begin our story with the matzah. Rashi, commenting on the term לחם עני / the bread of affliction (Deutoronomy 16:3) suggests that the matzah is referred to in this way because it is a bread that calls to mind the affliction to which the Israelites were subjected in Egypt. But the symbolism of the matzah does not end there. The matzah is also our bread of freedom and redemption. In response to the question, מַצָּה זוֹ שֶׁאָנוּ אוֹכְלִים, עַל שׁוּם מַה? “This matza that we eat: what does it recall?” the haggadah tells us,
עַל שׁוּם שֶׁלֹּא הִסְפִּיק בְּצֵקָם שֶׁל אֲבוֹתֵינוּ לְהַחֲמִיץ עַד שֶׁנִּגְלָה עֲלֵיהֶם מֶלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַמְּלָכִים, הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, וּגְאָלָם
“It recalls the dough of our ancestors, which did not have time to rise before the Ruler of Rulers, the Holy One, blessed be God, revealed Godself and redeemed them.” The matzah, then, not only reminds us of the affliction and oppression the Israelites experienced – the hard labor, the uncertainty, the suffering - but also the redemption that comes perhaps when you least expect it, when you are unprepared, when your bread has not yet risen.
Another food we use to tell the story of the Israelites in Egypt is the charoset. The Talmud offers two explanations as to why we eat charoset on the night of the Seder. Rabbi Yochanan posits the more widely known position that the texture of the charoset resembles the mortar that the Israelites used to build the cities of Egypt. The charoset reminds us of the physical labor the Israelites endured as slaves. Rabbi Levi offers a drastically different suggestion: the charoset serves as a remembrance to the “apple tree.” The apples of the charoset harken back to the apple orchards where the continuity of the Israelites was guaranteed. The Israelite women went to deliver their babies under the apple trees, away from the Egyptians, to protect the baby boys under threat from Pharaoh’s decree to kill them. And the Israelite women seduced their husbands under the apple trees to make sure the Israelite nation would continue to procreate and grow. The charoset, like the matzah, symbolizes two contrasting realities - the impasse and “going nowhere” nature of slavery in contrast to the hope of a future and the commitment to ensure continuity and perpetuity.
The third food to mention is the karpas. The word karpas originates from the Greek word karpos, which means the fruit of the soil. The eating of karpas is often fulfilled by dipping parsley into salt water. The salt water, we are told, symbolizes the tears the Israelites shed because of their bondage. The parsley in its green-ness, reminds us of spring, hope, new beginnings, the birth of a people. Whereas the matzah and the charoset carry dual and opposing symbols, the dipping of the karpas in salt water carries both the idea of slavery and the hope for redemption simultaneously.
As we continue to tackle climate change and face big hurdles under the new administration in this country and as the challenges of addressing climate change globally persist, these foods of the Passover seder can serve as an inspiration to us. They help remind us of the Jewish belief in the possibility of transformation, at any moment, no matter how hard things are, no matter how impossible it seems to bring about change. Our bread of affliction can turn into our bread of redemption that we carry with us as we leave Egypt. The harsh conditions of slavery do not preclude the possibility of a future. Our tears from the past mingle with our joy in witnessing a new dawn.
May we use Passover and these symbolic foods from the Seder to acknowledge the pain and the suffering and the tears that climate change has wrought around the world while simultaneously embracing and working towards the possibility of transformation, redemption, perpetuity and new beginnings.