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Passing Over
North Miami Beach, FL April 8, 2001 Aaron H.
Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then, Opinions pro or con are welcome.
PASSING OVER
We have been lucky this holiday season. We are alive, well, live in a nice
new home and have hopes for the future. Two wonderful families who are
fortunate having parents, children and grandchildren near them have
warm-heartedly invited us to share their bounty. That takes care of the
first two nights and we also have an invitation to a dinner next Thursday.
Holidays (sometimes confused with "Holy" Days) give you something to think
about. I got to thinking that it was sort of nice to revisit the events
which made the Hebrew People into Jews who hankered after their own land, a
land promised them. It is also nice that Moses was not made into an icon
(despite heroic images that I have seen in Rome) or an object of worship.
But it was the image of the sacrificial lamb that made me think the most.
I question the reason for this re-enactment since sacrifice as a way of
worship was abandoned after the second Temple was destroyed by the Romans
way back in 72 of the Common Era. It disturbs me that the odor of burnt
animals was considered to be pleasing to the invisible God of the Hebrews
while there were so many idols before whom Pagans sacrificed in the same
way. Prayer, which is an unresolved thing, was substituted.
Most disturbing to me is the thought voiced in the Haggadah we read last
night. This is the notion that because the Hebrew People were led by Moses
across the Red Sea, into the desert for forty years and then up to the
borders of what was to be their Holy Land - that all of this was a cause of
rejoicing. But, asked the text, how could we be so joyful when we knew that
the first born sons of Egypt and their armies were destroyed? "Adonai" led
his chosen people by a pillar of smoke by day and pillar of fire by night.
But, He destroyed his other children and the sacrifice of the lamb has
become a symbol. Giving 10 Commandments was not a payment for chosen-ness.
Sacrifices are too bloody and speak of an unstable and vengeful God.
This is all too reminiscent of the struggle now going on in the same part
of the world that the Passover story tells about. Pity those who are
sacrificed for any reason. Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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