The lead up to Passover was traditionally one of the few times in which rabbis offered extended “sermons.” Some, I’m sure, long for the “good ‘ole days.” The extended instruction was often focused on the complexity and comprehensive logistical preparations for the festival observance. And yet, there is an acute awareness of the ideals and values toward which these symbolic acts gesture. The physical changes to our lives, down to the way we consume food, are meant to shake us out of our moral and spiritual complacency. Like the shofar on the High Holidays, this disruption to our homes and tables compels us to seek out and embrace the suffering and the silenced—to provide for the essential human dignity that arises from a release from the structural and personal bounds that constrain us. And so, as we scour our pantries for chametz and our files for annual recipes, let us also plumb the depths of our hearts to hear the call of conscience to attain for others the comforts and blessings that we take as a basic human right.
