Rabbi's Blog: Passover - April 2025

The Torah asks two things of us on Passover that are in tension with each other.  The first is “v’samachta b’chagecha - You shall rejoice in your festivals” (Deut 16:14).  That sounds good to me.  Who doesn’t like to enjoy whatever it is that they’re doing?  It also makes sense.  Passover is our celebration of being free - that is something to rejoice over.  The second thing our tradition asks of us is that we should abstain from eating or drinking anything with chametz - wheat, oat, barley, rye or spelt except for matzah.  Some take that even further and abstain from kitniyot - things like rice or legumes.  The food restrictions take away from the joy.  I’ve never eaten matzah and thought, “this is great!”  Rather, as our Passover haggadah says, “This is the bread of affliction!”  

So what gives?  Are we supposed to enjoy Passover or suffer through it, struggling to enjoy meals that are missing some pretty staple items?   

The answer is both, best we can.  King Solomon once wrote, “To everything there is a season.”  But life doesn’t always neatly order things for us - the happy times and the sad times can overlap.  The celebratory and the somber don’t always wait for the other to conclude.  And just because we feel one way, that doesn’t mean that’s the only way we feel.  We were slaves and then we were freed and we remember both at the same time.  Perhaps that’s because we can’t truly appreciate freedom without also remembering slavery. We eat matzah not because it tastes great, but because it gives us a greater appreciation for the fact that we can choose not to eat only matzah the rest of the year. 

This year, like last year, matzah isn’t the only thing getting in the way of me rejoicing in Passover.  Far from it.  Passover is the festival of freedom.  But at the time that I’m writing this, 59 people are still being held hostage in Gaza.  There is no freedom for them.  Our seder ends with the words, “Next year in Jerusalem.”  Those words seem especially urgent now.

Passover may be difficult for many reasons.  This year, let us try and balance the seemingly impossible.  Rejoice for whatever freedom we may have, remember those who are not yet free, and pray and work towards a better world in the future.