An Aramean who wanders (was) my father, and he went down Egyptward, and he sojourned there in few numbers, and he became there a nation, great, mighty and many. And they did evil to us / made us out to be evil and they oppressed us, and they put on us heavy service. And we cried out unto YHVH God of our ancestors, and YHVH heard our voice and saw our oppression/humiliation, and our laboring, and our being squeezed. And brought us unto this place, and gave to us this land, a land dripping milk and honey. And now, here, I have brought the first of the fruit of the earth that YHVH gave to me (Deut. 26: 5-10)

We were to say these verses, according to our Torah, when we brought our first fruits to the Temple for Shavuot.  But they also appear in our haggadah.

These few verses tell the story of Exodus in the briefest, most beautiful and heart-rending form.  Simple, straightforward, and anguished — but ending with promises and hope.

Each year we are asked to relive what it means  to be oppressed.  Yet most Americans live lives of relative wealth and freedom.  How are we to make this injunction real, rather than rote?

One possibility would be to consider donating time or resources to helping oppressed peoples in the world, and to do so each day of the Passover holiday.  Can we translate our conscious gratitude for all we possess into generosity directed towards the many dispossessed peoples of the world?

May our celebration of Pesach help us to liberate others.

Rabbi Barbara