The first idea that is expressed in the Jewish Passover is the certainty of freedom. With the Exodus a new age was brought about for humanity: one of redemption from slavery. If the Exodus had not taken place, the course of human history and human destiny would have been radically different. The redemption, the Geulah, which resulted from the Exodus out of Egypt, would not have been its foundation.
During the night of Passover, we say: “Neither my fathers, nor I, nor my children would be free, we would remain slaves forever.” However, the door opened by the Exodus cannot be closed again! We are free with an eternal freedom. This freedom means not only moral liberty, but physical liberty as well. A liberty that cannot be contained; no barrier can resist it. The breath of freedom which has blown over the world since the Exodus dispels barriers to this day!
This is the conviction proclaimed by the Jew when he breaks bread [matzah] and raises the cup of wine on the night of Passover: the bread of misery, and the wine of liberty. The one vanquished by the other, proclaimed when in the era of the Temple Jews tasted the bitter herbs, whose bitterness is overcome by the Passover today. The optimism of the Jewish people, their social dynamism in revolutionary ages, both have their source and their driving force in Passover, which retains the sense given it by Moses. “Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat. Whoever is in need, let him come to celebrate with the Passover.” This is the invitation at the beginning of the Jewish Passover night…
The event of Passover allows all its depths and all its heights to be explored. From the dust of the most abject misery to the most fascinating miracle by which human dignity is restored to full grandeur, the night of Seder forces man to face, and so confront, himself. At the end of the “dialogue” the message becomes quite clear: man is summoned to join his brothers in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and Israel and, by that very fact, in the rebuilding of the world.
