Chol Ha'Moed Pesach 5771 Rabbi Aaron Goldstein 23 April 2011

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfill the Book.

These words that form one of the most important and eternally relevant songs from Bob Marley and the Wailers, have not made it into our latest Pesach Haggadah. But I suspect that it might not be too long before they sit alongside Go Down Moses with its ring of Paul Robeson in our ears. The story is biblical and recounts the universal elements of our Sacred Scripture. For us it is through the metaphor of the Exodus from Egypt.

As Rabbi John Raynor z”l wrote: These words, about the Exodus from Egypt, point to the meaning of all history. They teach us that its purpose is liberation – or redemption – from every kind of evil, and they encourage us to believe that the purpose is attainable. The folly and brutality of our past and present make the human story seem like one long succession of catastrophes; yet lamrot ha-kol, in spite of everything, slowly, surely, ultimately, truth must triumph over falsehood, justice over oppression, love over hate. It will happen in spite of human nature. It will happen because of human nature. It will happen because, in the end, God’s will cannot be thwarted.

Both the words of Rabbi Raynor and those of Bob Marley, tell of the way in which redemption will ultimately come. Appointed seasons of redemption have come and gone for Jews and all peoples of this world. Our Liberal Jewish understanding of the time of redemption is not a ‘when,’ but a ‘how.’ It does not depend on God alone, but on humanity, co-operating with God to bring about the messianic age of freedom, justice, love and peace, for Israel and all peoples.

But how can we fight for redemption when for the vast majority of us in this Community, we have not known what it is to lack freedom. Matzah is a bread that afflicts our stomachs but often not our hearts and minds, for we know that the week is nearly out and we can return to our regular diets. We have not had to fight for that return. Is it true that only one who is frightened for the loss of their freedom or that they might never attain it, can truly appreciate the gift of freedom, of liberation, of redemption?

Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, and American Orthodox Rabbi, Talmudic scholar and modern Jewish philosopher, advocated a synthesis between Torah scholarship and Western, secular scholarship as well as positive involvement with the broader community. He suggested that a frightened person cannot be free.

“Contemporary man is an unfree being because he is insecure. Man is a social animal and cares about public opinion. Modern mad does all he can in order to win favour in the eyes of the public. Even those who are legally free men, who are not slaves, are in bondage to nature, to society, to restrictive phobias, superstitions and prejudices. There is only one way for man to free himself from all his restrictions, his fears and phobias. Surrender to God frees man from his serfdom to his fellow man. Modern man is not free – a frightened person cannot be free. Terror and fear mean captivity for man.”

I wholeheartedly agree with this concept, I have to say for me personally and I believe, for many of us. This is a story of enslavement and the desire to be free that we can all understand now, or at least have experienced at moments in our lives. There is a real sense of freedom when we feel, if but for a split second, our complete oneness with God. Me, I as an individual human being at One. No other mortal concern.

On Tuesday night, our Shul hosts the CCJ Seder where 100 people from the local community including 5 Christian Ministers, will come to share the message of our Haggadah, our telling of slavery and of redemption: To learn from each other’s stories, of humanity, of love and of the Oneness of God. This is not an act of fear but of love. Love for our neighbours, our community and of God. Our ancient Rabbis said: Redemption, like a livelihood, must be earned each day. May our sedarim this year, our Season of Unleavened Bread, this Season of our Liberation, free us of fear so that we may be busy bringing about our desire, that ultimate redemption will come, ‘soon, in our days.’

Let us share our redemption songs with humanity in love, so that we draw nearer the time when all in physical bonds will be unfettered and all who are mentally and spiritually enslaved are redeemed.

Amen.