A Passover Message from Rabbi Josh Hearshen

Pesach/Passover is known by four different names: Chag HaPesach, Chag HaHerut, Chag HaMatzot, and Chag HaAviv. It’s appropriate for such a giant of a holiday to have four different ways to be understood.

Chag HaPesach refers to the verb of Pesach in that God passed over the houses of the Israelites during the 10th and final plague. It’s also a reference to the lamb our ancestors slaughtered to be protected from said plague. That sacrifice became the Passover/Pesach sacrifice that was first observed in Egypt and then subsequently in the desert and then in the Temples. Chag HaHerut refers to the nature of the holiday and the celebration of our freedom. It’s during Passover each year that we gather and rejoice over the gift that is freedom. The next name, Chag HaMatzot, celebrates the penultimate food of the holiday. Now that we no longer have the Paschal Lamb, the food this holiday is most connected to is the Matzah we eat while celebrating. While we’re only commanded to eat it on the first night (in Israel), or the first two nights (in the Diaspora), there’s no doubting the centrality of Matzah to the entire holiday. The final name is Chag HaAviv, and that means the spring holiday. Passover is the time of the year where the earth comes back to life. The grass awakens from its dormant phase. The animals return to being active outside. There’s so much excitement every spring as the days get longer and the nights shorter. It’s a time of new birth, or rather rebirth.

This year, I encourage you to look for a way to connect to each name for Pesach which will bring additional meaning as we celebrate this beautiful holiday. Pesach connects us to the miracle of Jewish existence. We are the improbable survivors. As the world tried to eliminate us time and again, we refuse to stop going forward. The most important part of this is Pesach of Chag HaPesach which refers back to our slaughtering a lamb and placing its blood on our doorposts. This means our ancestors were actively involved in their own survival and we need to be active today as well. We all need to harness the power of Chag HaPesach and to see our essential and important part in Jewish continuity.

Chag HaHerut reminds us of the gift of freedom. We struggle to appreciate freedom because very few of us actually know what it means not to be free. Today, there are 59 of our brethren in captivity against their will in Gaza. We believe 24 of them to be alive and in desperate need of their freedom. The 35 we believe are dead have families who are also being held captive by Hamas. They simply can’t move forward without the closure of being reunited with their loved ones, even if they’re dead.

Chag HaHerut this year forces us to recognize freedom truly is a gift because we know it’s precious and something that can be taken from us. It’s a treasure and something those in my family lack experience in. We must celebrate Chag HaHerut this year on behalf of the remaining hostages to help to give them a Chag HaHerut as soon as possible so they can join us in celebrating next year.

Chag HaMatzot is the food we baked in a hurry to get out of Egypt. What’s incredible about Matzah is that it can only be made from five different grains: Wheat, Spelt, Barley, Oats or Rye. Those five grains are the only sources of matzah and they’re also the five sources of Chametz, the stuff we are not permitted to own, eat, derive benefit from or even see, during Pesach each year. Look at the paradox that is Matzah and Chametz. It takes 18 minutes to make Matzah, and if it takes one moment more, it’s Chametz instead of Matzah. We don’t have a Mitzvah we have a forbidden food.

We have an obligation to see the world as filled with opportunities to make things sacred. We need to see that we constantly live in these moments of tension where something can be this or that, and thus we need to do all we can to make things meaningful and life changing rather than destructive and meaningless.

Lastly, Chag HaAviv is the new birth of spring. Ask yourself how you’re going to find a new you to grow from this holiday? Pesach is our chance to be reinvigorated and filled with new found energy. This is the time for all of us to find a new gear in which to put our lives and to find a new direction in which to go.

Chag Kasher v’Sameach to all of you.

Rabbi Josh Hearshen is the Rabbi at Congregation Or VeShalom in Brookhaven, Ga.