Page 18 - HaMizrachi #28 Pesach USA 2021

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks ל“צז

Sharing the Bread of Affliction

esach, the Jewish festival of free- used to wonder: a symbol of oppression that that moment can be dated as the
dom, is an extraordinary testi- or liberty? Surely it could not be both. beginning of the change by which we
Pmony to the power of ritual to who had not died slowly changed from
keep ideals and identity alive across The other element I found strange was Haftlinge [prisoners] to men again.”
the centuries. On Pesach, we relive the the invitation to others to join us in
story of our people, sitting together at eating the bread of affliction. What kind Sharing food is the first act through
home as an extended family as if we were of hospitality is that, I thought, to ask which slaves become free human beings.
back in the Egypt of the pharaohs, on others to share our suffering? One who fears tomorrow does not offer
the night before we are about to go free Unexpectedly, I discovered the answer his bread to others. But one who is will-
after long exile and harsh enslavement. in Primo Levi’s great book, If this is ing to divide his food with a stranger
has already shown himself capable of
We begin the drama by holding up a a Man, the harrowing account of his fellowship and faith, the two things
matzah, the dry unleavened bread that experiences in Auschwitz during the from which hope is born. That is why
is one of the key symbols of the festi- Holocaust. According to Levi, the worst we begin the Seder by inviting others to
vals, and saying, “This is the bread of time was when the Nazis left in January join us. That is how we turn affliction
affliction our ancestors ate in the land 1945, fearing the Russian advance. All into freedom.
of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come prisoners who could walk were taken
and eat.” A child, usually the youngest on the brutal “death marches.” The only It sometimes seems to me that, having
present, then asks a series of questions people left in the camp were those too created the most individualistic society
about “why this night is different from ill to move. in history, we today risk losing the logic
all other nights.” of liberty. Freedom is not simply the
For 10 days they were left alone with only ability to choose to do whatever we like
The rest of the evening is largely ded- scraps of food and fuel. Levi describes so long as we do not harm others. It is
icated to answering those questions, how he worked to light a fire and bring born in the sense of solidarity that leads
retelling the story of the Exodus together some warmth to his fellow prisoners, those who have more than they need to
with acts of eating and drinking that many of them dying. He then writes: share with those who have less. By giving
include the bitter herbs of suffering and help to the needy and companionship to
the wine of freedom. It is history made “When the broken window was repaired those who are alone, we bring freedom
memory by re-enactment. For most Jews and the stove began to spread its heat, into the world, and with freedom, G-d.
it is the way we learned, when we were something seemed to relax in everyone,
young, who we are and why. and at that moment Towarowski (a Fran-
co-Pole of 23, with typhus) proposed
It also has hidden depths. I always used to the others that each of them offer a
to be puzzled by two features of the eve- slice of bread to us three who had been
ning. The first is the conflict between working.” And so it was agreed. “Only a
the two explanations of the unleavened day before,” says Levi, “this would have
bread. At the beginning of the story we been inconceivable. The law of the camp
call it the bread of affliction. Later on in said: ‘Eat your own bread, and if you can,
the evening, we speak of it as the bread that of your neighbour.’” To do otherwise Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks ל“צז was a
global religious leader, philosopher, and
of freedom they ate as they were leaving would have been suicidal. The offer of award-winning author who served as Chief
Egypt in such a hurry that they could not sharing bread “was the first human ges- Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations
wait for the dough to rise. Which is it, I ture that occurred among us. I believe of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013.

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