Abigail Pogribin
The Atlantic, Apr. 22, 2022
“But this year, my usual orientation toward “the stranger,” or, in contemporary parlance, “the other,” feels oversimplified, insufficient, naive to the idea—however hard to accept—that the hated “other” is sometimes us.”
Every year, when my family sits down at the Passover seder table, we talk about the stranger.
The version of the Haggadah that we use, with its readings and blessings, includes a passage from Exodus: “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of a stranger.” Hammered home during my childhood was the message of compassion: Because our ancestors were freed from bondage in Egypt, we should help those who suffer today.
Over four cups of wine, we always reflect on who, currently, languishes in a metaphorical Egypt: Afghans one year, Syrian refugees the next, then Uyghurs. This holiday, we’ll likely talk about Ukrainian families that went from living their lives to running for their lives.
But as Passover approaches, I’m replaying a conversation I had with Dov Linzer, an Orthodox rabbi with whom I used to co-host a podcast about the Torah portion of the week. He told me that the key line about empathizing with the stranger isn’t mentioned in his Haggadah at all. He was startled that the chief mandate I had absorbed is to think about who is in trouble now, because Jews once were in trouble ourselves.
Abigail Pogrebin is the author of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew, and a former president of Central Synagogue in New York.
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