Ma Hadash Blog from CSH

This text is from a d'var given by Rabbi Michael on Friday, April 26.

Let me read a section from the Haggadah to you:

הגדה של פסח, ברך, שפוך חמתך מוזגים כוס של אליהו ופותחים את הדלת: שְׁפֹךְ חֲמָתְךָ אֶל-הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדָעוּךָ וְעַל-מַמְלָכוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּשִׁמְךָ לֹא קָרָאוּ. כִּי אָכַל אֶת-יַעֲקֹב וְאֶת-נָוֵהוּ הֵשַׁמּוּ. שְׁפָךְ-עֲלֵיהֶם זַעֲמֶךָ וַחֲרוֹן אַפְּךָ יַשִּׂיגֵם. תִּרְדֹף בְּאַף וְתַשְׁמִידֵם מִתַּחַת שְׁמֵי ה'.

Translation: (from the Pesach Haggadah, section Barech, Pour Out Thy Wrath) We pour the cup of Eliyahu and open the door. Pour your wrath upon the nations that did not know You and upon the kingdoms that did not call upon Your Name! Since they have consumed Ya'akov and laid waste his habitation (Psalms 79:6-7). Pour out Your fury upon them and the fierceness of Your anger shall reach them (Psalms 69:25)! You shall pursue them with anger and eradicate them from under the skies of the Lord (Lamentations 3:66).

Now let me read an alternative version, from a 1521 Haggadah from Worms:

שְׁפֹךְ אַהֲבָתְךָ עַל הַגּוֹיִים אֲשֶׁר יְדָעוּךָ וְעַל מַמְלָכוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּשִׁמְךָ קוֹרְאִים בִּגְלַל חֲסָדִים שֶׁהֵם עוֹשִׂים עִם יַעֲקֹב וּמְגִנִּים עַל עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל מִפְּנֵי אוֹכְלֵיהֶם. יִזְכּוּ לִרְאוֹת בְּסֻכַּת בְּחִירֶיךָ וְלִשְׂמֹחַ בְּשִׂמְחַת גּוֹיֶיךָ.

Translation of Alternative reading - Pour Out Your Love

Pour out Your love on the nations that know You
And on the kingdoms that call upon Your Name
For the loving-kindness that they perform with Jacob
And their defense of the People of Israel
In the face of those that would devour them.

May they be privileged to see
The Succah of peace spread for Your chosen ones
And rejoice in the joy of Your nations.

Well…two Jews…and two VERY different opinions. What do we do with these two radically different ideas (and extremes?)

Jews have always dealt, in some ways, with this tension. In the book of Ruth, we learn that the matriarch of the Davidic line (Ruth) is a moabite, a foreigner. In the book of Ezra (and Nehemia) we learn that only those who have kept the strict practices of Israel are considered part of the ‘in-group.’ In modern terminology, we refer to this conflict as the particularist tendency verses the universalist tendency - those who focus on the specific group verses those who focus on the wider, human perspective.

Yossi Klein Halevi speaks of this in his discussion about the two different types of Jews he sees in the world:

Jewish history speaks to our generation in the voice of two biblical commands to remember. The first voice commands us to remember that we were strangers in the land of Egypt, and the message of that command is: Don’t be brutal. The second voice commands us to remember how the tribe of Amalek attacked us without provocation while we were wandering in the desert, and the message of that command is: Don’t be naive.

The first command is the voice of Passover, of liberation; the second is the voice of Purim, commemorating our victory over the genocidal threat of Haman, a descendant of Amalek. “Passover Jews” are motivated by empathy with the oppressed; “Purim Jews” are motivated by alertness to threat. Both are essential; one without the other creates an unbalanced Jewish personality, a distortion of Jewish history and values.

I’m not sure if anyone has been following current events, but suffice to say, we have extremes, almost caricatures, of these narratives dominating the news cycle. We have the Purim Jews fighting the Passover Jews in our community. We have the two versions of pouring from our Passover Seder. Both of these groups, counter to the advice of Yossi Klein HaLevi, are unbalanced. I tell you clearly: you can’t be a Jew without the memory of the many times others have tried to destroy us. “That's not what’s happening here,” you might say; to which I respond, “it is and it isn’t.” And I tell you clearly: that to be Jewish is also to recognize that universalistic value of shared humanity and understanding. I have met and spoken with the best and the worst of all sides in this issue; within the same camp, you might find voices that will deeply inspire you, and voices that fill you with dread; voices of balance and total distortion.

I can offer you no resolution to these two strands of Jewish tradition. All I can tell you is that if you were ever in a situation where you hear, one voice, one strand, one only: you must remember the other.

You must remember,

כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃

…For you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:20). AND you must remember,

זָכ֕וֹר אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂ֥ה לְךָ֖ עֲמָלֵ֑ק בַּדֶּ֖רֶךְ…לֹ֖א תִּשְׁכָּֽח!

Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey…do not forget! (Deuteronomy 25:17).

Rabbi Sharon Braus adds one extra layer of nuance to this dichotomy, which I’d like to adapt from her discussion of Passover amidst the early days of the pandemic. No matter the strand of Jewish tradition we find ourselves looking at, she encourages us to think about Passover as a moment free from fear. She writes, "Passover in such a moment calls us to transform an hour of collective angst into a time of collective awakening. Let our vulnerability and awareness become an anchor in a storm, our reminder of the power of faith, which we will need when all of this is over, as we lift one another off the floor and work together to build a society of radical accountability, one rooted in equity and equality, justice, and dignity, and most of all, love.”

Whether you find yourself a Passover or Purim Jew, a universalist or particularist, I encourage you only to remember the other strand that our tradition holds up simultaneously. Shabbat shalom and Moadim l’simcha.