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March 22, 2002
Four cups for liberation
This Passover, take a more in-depth look at freedom.
RABBI DANIEL BRENNER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The 20th-century philosopher and historian Isaiah Berlin argued
in his Essays on Liberty that "men do not live only
by fighting evils. They live by positive goals, individual and collective...."
Each year, as we tell the Passover story, we affirm Berlin's understanding
of liberty. We do this by imagining the moment when the newly freed
slaves made it across the dried out seabed. Behind them, Pharaoh's
armies have vanished into the waves. Before them, lay a vast desert
sky and the journey toward national dignity, social responsibility
and a safe homeland.
While freedom stories begin with liberation or revolution from past
oppression, they lead us to think about the challenges of a collective
future. In the last few months, Americans and their allies have
liberated a people thousands of miles away. In Israel tensions have
escalated to new highs. And in North America and other Diaspora
communities, we face the new task of balancing our security with
our basic freedoms.
All of these events push us to ask: What freedoms cannot be diminished?
Should privacy, equal protection and the freedom of religious and
political expression change in a time of uncertainty? Should these
freedoms be extended to all? In ways both political and personal,
we are asking what we really mean by freedom.
The idea of discussing freedom on seder night is not new. In creating
the Haggadah, the rabbis added a salute to freedom with each cup
of wine. Their idea was that, as we recall the biblical phrases
"brought us out," "helped us," "redeemed
us" and "took us out," we are challenged to think
about a different aspect of liberation with each cup.
Just as the rabbis connected four phrases of redemption to the four
cups of wine, my colleagues and I at CLAL - The National Jewish
Centre for Learning and Leadership suggest the following four questions
be included to deepen the meaning of each of the four cups at your
seder.
• First cup. Remembering the time of liberation: What stories
of freedom have you witnessed in your lifetime?
• Second cup. Telling the story of Moses, Aaron and Miriam
standing up to Pharaoh: What freedoms would you stand up to defend
if they were threatened in your own country?
• Third cup. Blessing the abundant meal: What responsibilities
do the freedoms you enjoy carry?
• Fourth cup. Declaring redemption as a universal human goal:
How might the freedoms that you enjoy be shared by people around
the world in the coming years?
From a Jewish perspective, the idea of freedom can be traced to
the quest for a just society that began with the Exodus. At the
beginning of the Enlightenment, this idea was amplified by the efforts
of a small group of intellectuals and visionary politicians who
laid out principles of freedom in America and Europe. In the years
since, freedom and the rights and responsibilities that it entails
have become an integral part of our lives and ideals.
In telling the original story of escape from oppression, the Passover
seder celebrates liberation and sparks a yearly conversation about
contemporary liberation struggles and challenges to equity and justice.
But ultimately, it asks us to consider the future - to find "positive
goals, individual and collective" that spur us to fulfil our
ideals.
When you sit at your seder and answer the four questions on freedom,
the discussion may seem very different from the ancient rabbinic
visions of messianic redemption. But in reality, the dreams are
the same. Just as the rabbis imagined Elijah's return, an end to
exile, a reunion with God and peace among the nations, on Passover
night we imagine that, despite the terror and anger in the world,
we may all someday live without the pharaohs and barriers that block
us from seeing the divine image in all people. Passover's Exodus
is only complete when we, from a position of safety, can utter and
live by the words from Leviticus (25:10): "Proclaim liberty
throughout the land."
Rabbi Daniel Brenner is a senior teaching fellow at CLAL
- The National Jewish Centre of Learning and Leadership.
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