A Pesach Message from the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks

A Pesach Message from the Chief Rabbi

Sharing our vulnerabilities, we discover strength
A simple thought about the Seder service:
We begin by saying: 'This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.  Let all who are hungry come and eat.' I long wondered what kind of hospitality it is, to offer guests the bread of affliction. 
Eventually, I understood.  Matzah has two different, even opposed, symbolisms. At the beginning, we call it 'the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt'. But at the end, in that passage beginning, 'Rabban Gamliel used to say,' we describe it as the bread of freedom which our ancestors when they were leaving Egypt.

How do you transform the bread of affliction into the bread of freedom? By sharing it with others.

Primo Levi, in his great book, If this is a man, describes how, in the intensely difficult days between the Germans leaving Auschwitz and the Russian troops arriving, for the first time, a fellow prisoner offered him to share his bread with him.
Levi writes that during the whole of their imprisonment in Auschwitz, you couldn't share your bread with others.  If you did, you would die.  He then says that the offer of food 'was the first human gesture that occurred among us.  I believe that that moment can be dated as the beginning of the change by which we, who had not died, slowly changed from prisoners to men again.'

When we share our bread with others, we have taken the first step from affliction to freedom. Sharing our vulnerabilities, we discover strength. Reaching out to others, giving help to the needy, food to the hungry, and companionship to those who are alone, we bring the Divine presence into the world, and with it human solidarity, which is the beginning of freedom.
May you and your family have a chag kasher vesameach, and may Hashem's blessings be with us all.
With every good wish
Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks