Musings at Passover

As the holiday of Passover descends upon us, my thoughts are drawn to two sources of wisdom: the Jewish Midrash – which examines biblical text in a far deeper way than the actual stories – and a somewhat forgettable movie called “Oh God, Book 2”, starring George Burns as the Almighty.

In the movie, God is asked by a child why – if he is indeed all powerful – is there pain and suffering in the world? He answers simply yet profoundly, asking if the little girl has ever seen a top without a bottom, or an up without a down. “I know it sounds like a cop-out,” he says, “but there can’t be good without bad. If I take sad away, happy has to go with it.”

Shift back now 2500 years or so, as the Passover story unfolds.

The Midrash tells us how the angels surrounding God sang a hymn of praise to Him as the Hebrews emerged safely from crossing the Reed Sea, while their Egyptian tormentors were drowned. In this tale, God becomes angry and orders the angels to stop. “How can you sing,” He asks, “when My creatures are dying?”

This weekend at Passover tables, Jews worldwide will retell the story of the exodus from Egypt. We will recite the blessings, emulate the foods our ancestors ate, and yes . . . we will sing. We will sing songs of freedom and redemption, welcome in Elijah the Prophet, and give thanks for every blessing and gift. And well we should, for if ever there were a pivotal event in the history of the world, it was the freeing of the Hebrews from slavery.

Thomas Jefferson called liberty “an inalienable right, endowed by our creator.” This right does not derive from any government, pharaoh, president nor king, but rather from natural law. As God admonished the angels at the Exodus, all creatures are His creatures, and all are equal. Yet obtaining this equality usually comes at a terrible price. Wars fought to free one people always leave in its wake the dead of another; even non-violent movements, like those of Mahatma Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rarely, if ever, can we find George Burns’ “good” without his “bad”.

But that does not mean we should stop searching.