Between a Frog and Hard Place

Dear BMC Family, 

Our tradition, especially on Pesach, is rich with symbols to bring our history alive year after year. We have much to reflect during this time of Passover.

This chag (festival) obscures the lines of past, present, and future through the power of story. We’re taught to remember we were the ones who were enslaved and crossed the Red Sea. A deeper reading suggests that we celebrate to remember that we are in fact making a spiritual exodus from our own internal Mitzrayim (Egypt) throughout our lives.

While most of us are spending our time at home, we are retelling the story of Israelite enslavement and the meaning of freedom. And though these nights we recline to celebrate receiving our freedom, we know that our foremothers saw before them an unforgiving desert.

So why after centuries of subjugation followed by the plagues and an unthinkably rushed mass exodus, must our ancestors have then been cast into the desert for forty years? Another reading proposes that there was a need for time to pass for the community to transition into liberation in their minds and spirit. Only then could we enter into the promised land as a truly free people.

Perhaps this is a reminder for us to be patient as our exit from Mitzrayim, modern and present, will take time. And that we will press forward as we’ve always done, and reach our destination. Maybe a bit less tan this time.

Continuing to wish you safety and health, and sending a רְפוּאָה שְׁלֵמָה (r’fuah shlema, full recovery) to anyone currently in need. 

For those in our community who have experienced loss at this time, 

המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים

Hamakom yenakhem etekhem betokh shaar avelay tziyon viyrushalayim.

May Hashem comfort you among the rest of the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom, 

BMC Team