Passover Lessons for Fighting Modern Day Pharaohs

No holiday means more to my family than Passover. Our seder is filled with singing, eating and drinking, of course, but also with learning about how our traditions and teachings apply today.

Needless to say, there’s no shortage this year of modern-day challenges to which to apply centuries of seder-related learning. But – in keeping with Passover’s favorite number – I’ll limit myself to four.

1. Pharaohs are Bad for the Jews

Jewish history is jam-packed with stories of suffering at the hands of tyrants. The Egyptian Pharaohs were just the beginning. In the seder, we read that “in every generation, they rise up against us to destroy us.”

It’s an annual reminder that we come by a communal sense of danger and victimhood honestly.

From the Babylonian king and the Roman emperor who destroyed temples and exiled the Jewish people through the Inquisitions of the Middle Ages, to the modern era of czars, Hitler and Stalin – tyranny doesn’t turn out so good for the Jewish people.

Democracy, on the other hand, suits us pretty well.

Small minorities do best in a system committed to equality for all and the rule of law. For most of the last eight decades, in two strong if imperfect democracies – Israel and the United States – Jews have experienced one of the more secure and successful periods in our history.

Today, liberal democracy in both countries is under attack by two would-be autocrats, Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu, running similar authoritarian playbooks: Undermine the rule of law and the independence of the courts. Concentrate power in the executive. Trash the free press and higher education. Intimidate independent watchdogs. Scapegoat minorities. Play to the public’s basest instincts.

None of this will serve the Jewish people well in the long run.

So, on the holiday when we celebrate Jewish liberation from tyranny, let’s remember that maintaining our freedom requires standing up to modern-day tyrants and would-be Pharaohs.

2. “Next Year in Jerusalem” and the Dream of Returning Home

For centuries, Jews have ended the story of the Exodus on Passover with the refrain, “Next Year in Jerusalem.”

Historians and scholars differ over when that phrase became part of the seder, but Jewish longing for return to Jerusalem and the land of Israel has been part of Jewish tradition and liturgy for centuries.

Modern-day scholars and activists who present today’s Israel as a 20^th century European settler-colonial invention simply deny history. The seder provides an opportunity for reflection on the need - and the best way - to engage those who deny Jewish connectivity to our ancient homeland in the land of Israel.

It’s also an opportunity to reflect on the idea that one people’s connectivity to a land does not negate another’s to the same land. It’s worth considering that, if Jews pined for return for nearly two millennia, why would Palestinians, whose families fled or were forced from their homes a mere 77 years ago, not hold on to their hopes of return?

3. Nachshon and the Need for Courageous Leadership

The Jewish people fleeing Pharaoh reached the shores of the Red Sea and hesitated. Go forward and risk drowning. Stop, and be killed by the pursuing Egyptian army.

In this moment, the story goes, Nachshon Ben Aminadav – brother-in-law of Aaron – took a first step into the foreboding, swirling sea. The waters miraculously parted, the newly-freed slaves crossed to safety and the waters crashed back down, drowning the Egyptians who pursued them.

This well-known parable reinforces the importance of daring and courageous leadership when faced with danger and the unknown.

Today, ominous threats surround us. Fear is understandable – of terrorists driven by anger and rage or simply of obnoxious protesters shouting sometimes hate-filled slogans.

We must be extra mindful of those who look to weaponize those fears to shut down institutions and programs, to cut off funding, to deport legal immigrants. They are putting our democracy, security, and prosperity at risk and imposing an unacceptable price on dissent and disagreement.

Too many of those we need to provide leadership in this challenging moment – university presidents, corporate and media executives, heads of communal institutions – are bending the knee, preemptively ceding ground rather than showing the spine needed to resist.

For discussion at my seder: Where are the modern-day Nachshons? Who will lead by example? Who will plunge in and speak truth to power? Where in particular are the leaders of the Jewish community who should be out front and leading the opposition?

4. Drops of Wine and Empathy

As we recount the ten plagues during the seder, we traditionally spill one drop of wine from our cups for each plague.

Why?

To remember that our joy at our own liberation is diminished by the suffering of others, even our worst enemies. We recall that, when angels began to sing as the Egyptian army drowned, God admonished them, “my children are drowning. How can you rejoice?”

Core to Jewish values and identity is empathy – understanding from our own experience of oppression that we must not treat others the way we don’t want to be treated ourselves. As the great rabbi Hillel famously said, that is the essence of Judaism.

The lesson for today? Yes, terrorists must be defeated. Antisemites must be rooted out. But how we do it matters.

We must not turn a blind eye when extremist Jewish settlers run rampant on the West Bank and claim security justifications. We must speak out when humanitarian aid, water and fuel are immorally denied to civilians in Gaza, even as we recognize the need to remove Hamas from power.

We must not allow the fight against antisemitism to justify deporting non-citizen students simply because we don’t like what they are saying.

The suffering of one’s own people provides no justification to oppress another people. If there’s one simple lesson I’d wish to impart to my family at Passover, that would be it.

To all who celebrate, I wish you a thought-provoking and joyful Passover. May the holiday be filled with family, with song and with meaning.