The sign above the doorpost
Celebrate freedom amidst isolation: a Passover parable
This week begins the holiday of Passover, the world’s first festival of freedom. 3,332 years ago this Thursday, a broken and tormented people marched out from the land of their captivity and oppression. With heads held high, they set forth to meet their destiny, on course to become a great nation and introduce the world to the virtues of moral discipline, personal responsibility, and social justice.
The story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt reminds us that impossible dreams can become reality, that good ultimately triumphs over evil, and that every one of us is created with the free will to choose the path of righteous idealism over the ways of egotistic self-indulgence.
But this year, the most famous question in Jewish tradition will have a different flavor to it: Why is this night different from all other nights?