Happy Passover - the festival of liberation

[garthranzz]

There are many kinds of slavery and oppression - physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual.

May each of us, and indeed the whole world, rise above our limitations and fulfill our G-d given potential to create a world of light, goodness and civilization.

[GainesT1958]

1. And a Happy Passover to you, too!

And to all of our Jewish friends here at DU!:D

B-)

[tishaLA]

2. Happy Pesach!

[xultar]

3. Happy Passover...may your day be filled with love, friends and family.

Enjoy the celebration of the exodus and freedom from slavery.

[cali]

4. Happy Passover, and

thanks for the lovely sentiment. Well said.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. A rabbi elaborated on the story of Passover that has stayed with me.

The Israelis were escaping their enslavement from Egypt and were being chased. To be caught would be a fate worse than death. The Israelis were exhausted and hungry. They reached the shores of the Red Sea.

But the Red Sea wasn't parted just because the Israeli showed up. The Egyptian Army was catching up. A choice had to be made. Go back to slavery or go into the Red Sea for escape, even if it meant drowning. They chose to go forward.

The waves were hitting their faces, the water up to their necks. They believed they would be saved one way or the other.

When God saw their commitment to be free, then he parted Red Sea for their escape.

At this Passover, a commitment of action is necessary to not only affirm your beliefs, but also is necessary to change what is intolerable. This is a universal message that transcends religion.

[BayCityProgressive]

7. We all have

"Red Seas" we have to cross to gain freedom from spiritual, emotional, and physical slavery...hopefully everyone here uses this time to cross their own Red Sea!

[sarge43]

6. Happy Passover

.... proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
Leviticus 25:10

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

8. Thanks, and a happy Pesach to you as well!

One of my friends sent this to me; cracked me up!

http://one.revver.com/watch/193542

[sabra]

9. "why is this night different from all other nights?"

It will be my 4 year old son's turn to ask the 4 questions... :-)

chag semach!

[endarkenment]

10. Except of course if you happened to have been

a newborn egyptian male child. As soon as I was old enough to understand the story I started having problems with an angry vindictive god who punished innocents to demonstrate his might.

Passover is only partly a story of liberation. The other part is not so uplifting.

[PCIntern]

11. Then you will also need to note

that in the Haggadah, direct reference is made to the fact that the Jews are to diminish their wine cups ritually in order to demonstrate the sorrow and the loss of a portion of themselves upon the death of their enemies, for, it is written, each man's death is cause for such upset. That Jews mourn the deaths of those who are sworn to destroy them is a fascinating cultural and religious phenomenon, and that each year we pray for Peace.

[TZ]

12. "eye for eye, tooth for a tooth...."

Thats straight from the Bible. Do not forget that the newborn Egyptian children were condemned to death because Pharaoh ordered the first born Jewish children to die. God had told Moses that the last plague would be one the Egyptians brought on themselves. In fact Moses was quite distessed over the fact that he knew many Egyptian children would die. In a sense I think the story of Passover is more about "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". And thats why the seder is such a profoundly spiritual ritual, so we can remember the suffering of ALL.

[missingpeace]

13. I am not Jewish but my wife is, and...

She responds to the "eye for an eye..." post thusly:
Midrash tells us that when the Israelites celebrated at the drowing of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, God admonished the Israelistes saying they (the Egyptians) were His children also and His children were dying. We dip our finger in the wine and drop a bit of wine on our plate for each of the plagues to remind us that these were terrible times and to not gloat or take comfort in another's misfortune.
The ultimate lesson of Pesach is that while we are all struggling to free ourselves from our own personal Mitzrayim, until all peoples of the world are free, none of us is free.

[missingpeace]

15. Correction

My wife was actually responding to the post regarding the killing of the firstborn.

[endarkenment]

16. That is all nice

but as I said, the other half of the story is about a vengeful deity who kills innocent children, sends plagues etc., a god who intercedes in human affairs with a very heavy hand. That we shouldn't gloat over the slaughter of innocents is all well and good, it does not alter the fact that according to the story innocents were slaughtered. That half of the story is not so nice. It is in fact on that level a classic tribal-god tale, and not seeing it on that level, as well as on the more enlightened level of it's story of liberation, is in my opinion a mistake that leaves out a rather profound set of details. Just one atheist jew bastard's opinion, one too many seder's later.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. Happy Pesach! Although I don't practice Judaism, I always have a seder for my family and tonight

is no different. Have to start the chicken soup soon!

To Freedom of All People!