Around the World
HuffPost has a list of their Top 5 Passover Traditions from around the world. I like the literalism of the Jews of Gibraltar:
4) GIBRALTAR: In the British territory of Gibraltar, the tiny island off the coast of Spain, Jews actually mix the dust of bricks into their charoset dish, a symbol of the mortar used to hold together the brick walls the Jews built in Egypt, according to Hillel.
Don’t know where to have a seder? In Peru and don’t know where to go tonight? Chabad can help you. Chabad is hosting seders for Jews all over the world today, and they have a helpful global search function for those looking for a place to go. They are holding seders in Mumbai again, but the location is not being publicised and is only by word of mouth, because of security.
Of course, as Passover is a time to celebrate our freedoms, we have a religious duty, I believe, to remain aware of those for whome freedom is not yet a reality. There is no shortage in the world right now, from gays in Iraq, to anyone in Somalia, the Baha’i in Iran (or gays, or dissidents, or women, or secularists), migrant workers in the United States, most Palestinians, and on and on. We also must be aware of the rising tide of anti-Semitism in the world right now, and use this holiday to reflect on what we, as Jews, can do to combat all of these ills. While there is not political solution to anti-Semitism, and our historical examples of dealing with it have mixed results (the assimilated were killed in the Holocaust with everyone else), our tradition does offer an ethical solution. We must care for the stranger, for the neighbor, for the world. We must remain committed to justice and to mercy and know when the latter trumps the former, and we must do it even when those around us hate us. Hamas has a vile ideology, yes, and sadly many celebrate them, but that does not mean we are free to abandon our principles in fighting them. There is a literary example of Jews who abandoned their beliefs when circumstances were very hard, one we reflect on tonight. They ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years because of it. Let’s learn our lesson from this season, let’s remember when we eat our bitter herbs, that for so many, there bitterness has not ended.
