Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

“It was on that very day that G!d took the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt in formation”       Shmote 12:51

In the line above the Torah describes the triumphant exodus of the Children of Israel from the land of their enslavement, but how did we get there and what does this specific line mean to us?

For over two hundred years we were subjected to an increasingly brutal slavery that ended with the wholesale slaughter of our children at the hands of our Egyptian neighbors. The whole of the Jewish people was held hostage to Pharaoh’s desire for power and control.  G!d sent Moshe to negotiate a settlement with Pharaoh, and free the Jews. Moshe starts with a humble list of demands; he wants a break for three days so that the Jewish people can go and celebrate a holiday in the desert.  Pharoah replies with an emphatic no, Moshe responds by sending the plague of blood. Though the plague of blood affects Pharaoh, it is felt much more by the Egyptians themselves. This pattern continues eight times with the plagues causing increasing suffering for the Egyptian people, destroying homes and cities and leaving the population at risk of famine.

While G!d has been the power behind the plagues, the majority are brought about through Moshe’s agency. As such he should be the object of hatred and scorn of the Egyptians who are suffering so greatly from the plagues. The Torah tells us the opposite though, “Moshe was a great man in the eyes of Pharaoh's servants and the nation.” Though Moshe was the agent of the punishment of the Egyptian people, he was not the cause, Pharaoh was, and the people understood that.

While G!d was breaking the arrogance of Pharaoh and the Egyptians he was doing the opposite with the Children of Israel. He was building us up from next to nothing. When the plagues started, we were an oppressed and downtrodden people bereft of pride and hope with broken families. The Midrash tells us that the essence of Pharaoh’s project to destroy the Jewish people was to break up our families. Pharaoh knew that the Children of Israel are first and foremost a family, that our connection to G!d is through our familiar connection.

When the first plagues are sent, they differentiate between Jew and Egyptian. G!d did this to build up our pride as individuals to give each individual Jew the feeling of self-worth, that we were no less than the Egyptians and deserving of the same rights and respect of all other people. Next the plagues spare the property of the Jews. A slave is not entitled to his own property, here G!d was affirming our status as free people and right to property. The next differentiation that the plagues make is between the land of Goshen and the rest of Egypt. G!d did this to create national identity in the people of Israel. Not only are we free people, with rights and property, we are a nation with boundaries and laws.

There was only one part of our identity missing, the most important part of Jewish identity, being part of a Jewish family. When G!d commands the Jewish people to make the first Pesach Seder he orders us to do in families. This is the final, and most essential step in our becoming free. Taking our place within our families. Immediately after we do this the Torah tells us that we left Egypt in formation. The word that I translate as formation is usually translated as legion or army, but we had no army. We were a group of just freed slaves; the only organization that we had was that of family, clan and tribe. The power of G!d is not that He commands armies, it is that He commands Jewish families.

From that first Seder more than three thousand years ago until today we have been realizing freedom as families. Our freedom and the freedom of all people starts with a Jewish family reliving our history on the first night of Pesach. This year when we gather as families for the Seder, we bear witness that all of the broken Jewish families will be healed and made whole. That no evil tyrant, no matter how much he is willing to destroy, will ever break the power of the Nation of Israel. The Jewish family is the only miracle that we need.

Chag Kasher v’ Sameach,  Am Yisrael Chai!