March 27, 2010 | 12 Nisan 5770

Are you looking forward to Monday and Tuesday evenings?

Will you be sharing the seder on Monday and Tuesday at home with a number of family members and friends? Or is this the year you will be a guest?

Our seder is about family, friends, and food. But if we pay attention to the seder itself, its order and to the story that unfolds in the haggadah, Passover is about a journey… a journey from slavery to freedom.

“B’chol dor vador” – Those are the words we read shortly before we enjoy our meal. “In every generation each one of us is obligated to see ourselves as if we had actually left Egypt.”

Yes, we are on a journey… It will take us through the parted waters of the Reed Sea. We will pass Mt. Sinai, wander in the desert and then metaphorically enter Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel where we will serve God and give fullest expression to our peoplehood.

In fact, that metaphorical journey continuing through this spring season will intertwine biblical and modern Jewish holidays. On the 5th of Iyar, corresponding to April 19, we will celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut, the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. A biblical journey to Eretz Yisrael that we begin on Passover will bring us to Medinat Yisrael, the modern state.

Yes, the journey is supposed to start at our seder celebrations next week, but I wonder if we will even begin it? I have my doubts…

Earlier this week I traveled to Washington, D.C. with twenty of our congregants for the annual AIPAC Policy Conference. For three days, Jews and non-Jews gathered to give passionate expression to their love for Israel. We met with our congressional representatives and urged them to give unwavering support to the strong relationship Israel and the United States share.

Oh, yes, we were on a journey.  But what about others of us?

More than 60 years of anti-Israel propaganda and the jaundiced eye of the media have had their effect on many of us! At times, we may find ourselves thinking: Does Israel really want peace or does it just want land? Have Israeli soldiers become immune to the suffering of Palestinians? Do they cruelly deny basic necessities to Gaza’s Palestinians in order to subjugate them?

We read reports of how an Israeli government minister embarrassed Vice-President Biden on his recent trip by announcing an intention to build new residences in East Jerusalem, and we buy into the media’s terms – “Won’t those Israelis ever stop building those settlements, those obstacles to peace?!” And somehow, even if anti-Israel propaganda or media bias doesn’t successfully influence us, certainly Israel’s own undeniably disturbing actions frustrate us.

We look at the stranglehold the Chief Rabbinate holds over matters of personal status in Israel, and we think, “When will Israel’s elected leadership say to the ultra-Orthodox, ‘Enough; you will no longer exercise sole authority over such things in this country?’” We see that, for the most part, only Orthodox institutions receive financial support from the government, and we think, “When will these leaders finally understand that Israel’s spiritual well being must lie in embracing pluralistic Jewish expression?!”

Friends, with all these doubts, I fear the following imaginary scenario:

If God speaks to us at our seder tables next week and says – “You were slaves; now you are free,” we will respond as our biblical ancestors did at times in the Torah – “Oh, no, Lord, we don’t want to go to the Land of Israel, take us back to Egypt!”

If God says, “Lech Lecha” – “Go to the land I will show you…,” as God said to Abraham, we will cry out, “Oh, no, Lord, take us anywhere but there!”

Am I right?  Do you share my concerns?

If so, we must resolve to continue the journey that begins next week and then act to do so.

*The well-being of Israel must matter to us.

It must concern us because Israel is the only sovereign Jewish nation state in the world. “Sovereign Jewish nation state…” That phrase has spiritual meaning.

Israel is a place, really the only place, where Jews can be fully Jewish. Israel is a Jewish “laboratory…” the only place where Jewish ideals and values can guide society.

“Sovereign Jewish nation state” – that phrase also has practical, substantive meaning. At the time of its founding, many Jews thought of Israel as a haven for Holocaust survivors and, eventually, for oppressed Jews.

Given the nature of our world today, few of us continue to think about Israel’s importance in those terms. But what would happen to a segment of world Jewry that needed a haven *in the absence of Israel? Where would it find safety? What would happen to world Jewry if the unthinkable happened… if Israel really did disappear from the family of nations?

I am 54 years old. My Jewish awareness was developed in a world in which Jews felt empowered after the 1967 Six Day War. I have lived as a Jewish professional in a world in which Jewish pride and power have grown.

In my naïveté, I used to think that diaspora Jewry, at least here in America, could still flourish in the absence of the State of Israel. I no longer believe that… for I have come to accept the wisdom that Elie Wiesel shared with us – “Morality without power is insufficient.”

A world without Israel is a world in which Jewish power may well be lost. That would be devastating to us and to our future as a people…

So, my friends, we must:

|1|Read and watch news sources about Israel other than just our daily newspapers or the nightly news.  |2|We must act to foster the strong relationship between the United States and Israel because that relationship must be an enduring one.  |3|Specifically, we must add our voices to others who urge the U.S. Administration to do its utmost to prevent a nuclear Iran.

Friends - On Monday evening, we will again leave the bondage of Egypt and begin our journey to Israel.

Let us continue that journey until we give fullest expression to the words with which we will conclude our seder – L’shana haba’ah b’yerushalayim’ – “Next year in Jerusalem…” An earthly Jerusalem, where all will dwell safely and securely. And a heavenly Jerusalem whose spiritual meaning will again inform our lives. 

Amen.