American Jewish Life

Title

A Passover Prayer

Description

Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel (now retired) discusses what prayers are needed to escape the "Egypt" of the pandemic.

A PASSOVER PRAYER

Depending upon the final publishing schedule, this piece will appear
either immediately before we conclude our observance of Passover, or
immediately after. And, though we might feel different about ourselves
and this world we find ourselves living in before or after the end of
our festival observance, I would venture to guess that we will all share
one thing in common: a prayer that this year our prayers really will be
answered!

True, the “Egypt” that we are experiencing is different from that of
our ancestors. Yet, that we have been “groaning,” “crying out for
help,” “moaning,” each in our own way, and collectively, cannot be
denied.

We find ourselves in a place of “narrowness” (a word that is similar
to a core meaning which can be derived from the Hebrew: MITZRAYIM -
Egypt) ... a place where we have been, in some ways, cut off from those,
and that, which mean the most to us. And, as we read in the HAGGADAH, we
want only to be brought out from this slavery to freedom, from this
despair to joy, from this mourning to celebration, from this darkness to
light, from this enslavement to redemption so that we can sing before
God a new song: HALLELUYAH.

What will it take? How will we get there?

Social distancing and following the guidelines of the CDC is a start …
and absolutely necessary. However, in order to get through this we need
to do one more thing: we need to embrace it for what it is … with a
prayer.

As God prepared to take our ancestors out of Egypt, as a prelude to the
10th plague (the killing of the first-born), the people were told to put
blood on their doorposts. Why? Was the Angel of Death that
“challenged” that he had to look and see if the house was of the
Hebrews or not? NO! The people were directed to place the blood on the
doorposts to teach them that they would be saved only to the extent that
they participated in that process … in order to be redeemed, they
needed to work to redeem themselves.

What does that take? What is the equivalent for our day?

To start:

A prayer … a recognition that there is that which is greater than us
(individually and/or collectively), and that there will be a time after
this when we will be able to live life to the fullest once again.

A prayer … that we will find the strength to reach out to others the
way we expect God to be reaching out to us.

A prayer … that we will continue to see beyond the present moment.

A prayer … that we will have the hope and the faith to remember that
better days do lie ahead.

Will we ever return to what we used to have as normal? Other than trying
not to take some things that we used to for granted I do believe that we
will.

For our ancestors the wilderness was at times as trying as Egypt, but
they continued to step forward because they knew there was a Promised
Land. Let us pray that we can and will do the same.

Stay safe … Stay well …

B’VIRKAT SHALOM

Date Created

April 1, 2020

Community

Congregation Anshei Israel

State

Arizona

Place

Tucson

Creator

Rabbi Robert Eisen, Congregation Anshei Israel

This item was submitted on August 11, 2021 by Jewish History Museum in Tucson using the form “Contribute Your Materials” on the site “American Jewish Life”: https://pandemicreligion.org/s/american-jewish-life