From: jem@datum.nyo.dec.com (Jeremy Steinberg)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Passover: Faith, Jewish Style (R. Riskin)
Date: 15 Apr 92 12:54:38 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, NYC

Shabbat Shalom: Passover

By  Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel--Since bread is the staff of life, one  could  con-
ceivably   imagine   a festival in any  number  of  cultures  em-
phasizing the miracle of wheat turning into a miraculous loaf  of
bread,  a kind of universal  celebration  of  thanks,  the mother
of all Thanksgiving. But what can one say about a  festival  that
honors  a  cracker-like, often handbaked, substance, difficult to
chew,  exhausting  to prepare,  continuously  watched,  the  ful-
fillment of its requirements meticulously exacting.

Passover  more than  any other festival, pits two forces  against
each other, the ideas of slavery vs. freedom, and the best way to
examine  these two  forces  in  our lives not  just  as  abstrac-
tions  is through an understanding of the physical nature of mat-
zah. For if  this  ancient bread is to be more than a  means   of
tasting   what   our  ancestors actually put into their mouths as
they  fled  Egypt,  or  a moral message to be derived from clari-
fying   and   illuminating  distinctions between leavened and un-
leavened bread, then it must relate  directly  to the  theme   of
slavery and freedom, the heart of Passover.

Unlike Matzah, bread is the  desired  result  of  my  mixture  of
dough   and   water.   It's  what I expect, it's what I want, and
it's natural. If I take wheat, rye, barley, oats,  or  spelt  and
let  it  bake, what I get is bread. This is another way of saying
that chametz is the way of the world. If I want matzah,  however,
I  have  to  disturb the baking process, I cannot allow nature to
take its course. I must  work  the  dough,  watching  the  clock,
pounding  and  pounding to remove air bubbles. And the whole pro-
cess cannot last longer than eighteen minutes. Anyone who's  seen
the activity inside a matzah bakery will be reminded of a ballet,
while baking bread, though an art form, is really concerned  with
the  result--the box office of taste and satisfaction.

If the matzoh is a metaphor for our  own  realities,   it   means
that  if we want redemption,  we can't let nature take its course
but must step in to redirect  the  natural  order.  In  practical
terms,  everyone  is aware  of  how  often  we  put off major de-
cisions by saying that we're not ready. Wait  till  the  children
are  born,  or   until   they grow  up,  or  until  I retire, and
then, and then and then...The value of the eighteen minute  dead-
line  is  that it tells us we have to  start  from  where  we are
right now. Otherwise everytime the nineteenth minute arrives,  we
enter   the  domain of chametz,  relying  on  the  natural  order
to do the work for us. Whoever said freedom will arrive perfectly
baked,  a  crusty  pumpernickel  bread having  risen  to its full
roundness?

Evidence for this comes from the  Exodus  itself.  Had  the  Jews
waited  until  they  were  ready  for redemption,  we'd  still be
there today. We were slaves, bound to Pharaoh, but  the  command-
ment  arrived  to  prepare the pascal  lamb, slaughtering  it  on
the 14th even though the next plague was yet to come. What if the
Jews had said we'll eat the pascal lamb only after  we're  freed,
or if a decision were made that because they had descended to the
49th  degree  of ritual impurity, they  needed time to purify bo-
dies and souls, and until then no early celebrations?   But   the
Torah  declares: "You must eat it with  your  waist belted,  your
shoes  on  your feet, and your staff in your hand, and  you  must
eat   it  in haste" [Ex. 21:11].  In haste means the Jewish  peo-
ple  were not ready. The message is speed. Even though  we  don't
sacrifice  a  pascal lamb, halacha requires  that  we  finish the
meal before midnight just as the lamb had to be  finished  before
midnight  in  Egypt,  the  hour   when  the  rage  of  the  tenth
plague  would  fall  on Egypt's first born sons.

In 1948 many Jews were convinced that Israel should  not  declare
statehood   but   rather   wait  for events to take their natural
course. The reasons  were  convincing.  How  could  a  nation  of
600,000  fight  a  war  against  the powerful  Moslem  bloc  with
jihad  on  its lips? Where were the weapons we needed? And  since
we had just suffered the  Holocaust, our  souls were traumatized.
Even before they had a chance to absorb the ways of   the   coun-
try,  new  immigrants had  to  shed  their civilian  clothes  for
uniforms. But we jumped in, and we acted, despite inevitable  at-
tacks.  The  state  of   Israel  came  into  the world like a new
baked matzah, out of haste and speed, no time to rise with  skys-
crapers  or  fancy economic timetables. We pushed for freedom  in
1948 just as we pushed ahead when we left Egypt, even though  the
Red Sea looked menacing and forbidding.

Certainly,  the Passover  seder  is one of the secrets of  Jewish
survival,  family  and  friends  bathed  in a glow of respect and
love,  the  table  a  spectacle   of   bright   candles  and  the
glitter  of  the crystal reflecting the wines, and the brilliance
of the silverware and once a  year  china  service  and  the  eye
catching  seder plate and the spirit of the children asking ques-
tions. But if we don't take the message  of the matzah to  heart,
then  we've  missed another opportunity to turn a symbol into our
own  reality,  transforming  our lives  from talk of  freedom  to
experiencing it with all the risks involved.

During the seder, half of the  middle   matzoh   is   broken  and
hidden--called   afikoman--till  it is retrieved and eaten at the
end of the meal. We too sit with 'half a matzoh' during  most  of
our  lives  waiting  to be reunited with the original half at the
end. A broken matzoh is far from perfect, but if we wait to leave
our  own Egypts until the situation is 100% perfect, we may never
leave. That's why matzoh is also called the bread  of  faith--not
because it means that by keeping the laws of Passover it shows we
have faith in Judaism, for if that were so,  we  would  call  the
etrog  the  etrog of faith or the sukkah the sukkah of faith. No,
the essence of matzoh is that despite its state of  incompletion,
we have faith in G-d that he will redeem us, and that the Red Sea
will split if we take the first step. Without  faith,  matzoh  is
just  another cracker on the road to chametz.

Shabbat Shalom and a festive Passover.