At Passover, the Jewish festival of liberation, we EAT a story. It is the great narrative of our people: we were enslaved; now we are free.
Families gather from all parts. Some clean and cook for days. Tables are set with finery (and often an extra chair or three) and Haggadot – the guidebooks that describe the steps of the elaborate seder meal, complete with explanation. The word “Haggadah” comes from the Hebrew verb “Le’hagid” – To Tell. At the center of it all rests a seder plate, gracefully holding the symbolic foods.
As we tell, sing, and ask the story of the Exodus, we eat foods to heighten the experience – matzah, the bread of affliction, salt water, to remember tears, charoset, a sticky concoction that reminds us of mortar, and maror, the bitter herb. When we bite into bitterness, we experience it directly. That way, we will recognize the bitterness of oppression when we see it in others.
The story of the exodus isn’t told in a linear manner. It is, rather, impressionistic and experiential – like the writing of Virginia Woolf or Marcel Proust, one memory or idea leads to the next. We expound, we digress, we skip, we add a footnote from someone who lived 1000 years ago right next to a question seated next to us.
According to Jean Houston, a myth is a personal narrative written so large that everyone can see themselves in it. That’s the power of the Exodus story: every Jew can identify it as their personal story. In the seder, each person should experience that they, themselves, had left Egypt – if not the literal Land of Egypt, then the confinement, limitation, and suppression that Egypt represents. That’s what makes it our sacred story.
This year, as last, my community gathered on Zoom for a large seder – well over one hundred people! Many of us are good friends who haven’t seen each other in person for twelve months. To combat isolation, to prepare us for re-integration, and to honor the spirit of the Festival (and our Personal Storytelling Class), I divided participants into breakout groups, and asked them to tell a 2-minute story based on one of these prompts:
Tell about a time when…
- You felt free.
- You had no choice.
- You went on a journey.
- You bossed someone around.
- You floated.
- You stood up for yourself.
- A pet died.
- You were in the dark.
- You hid.
What story would you tell?
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