Every year at our seder, we include a text study of something that isn’t a part of the traditional Haggadah text. This year, we studied Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. Given in Memphis on April 3rd, 1968, the day before he was murdered, King spoke about how glad he was to live in that particular moment in time. Even though previous moments had brought important change, he believed that movement was happening. He believed that in 1968 there was such great momentum and the civil rights movement was on an important precipice of change. But at our seder table, after studying this text, I asked, “Would King have felt like we’ve made such great progress?” Would King have thought that we’ve done the right work, as a society, to bring us closer to Redemption?
This week, I’ve followed the trial of Derek Chauvin with great interest. As the trial coincides with our celebration of Pesach, I have asked myself several times while watching, “where is redemption?” It has been powerful and painful. As I’ve heard testimonies of people taking the stand in the Chauvin trial, I can’t help but wonder what King would have thought. What would he make of this moment? What would he make of all of the moments that highlight racism in our country? I wish Redemption came quicker. I bet King wished that, too.
The Pesach story can trick us into thinking that Redemption happens with a quick splitting of the sea. The story, often taught to children, gets simplified to 10 plagues that put enough pressure to make societal change. But really, there are two types of Redemptions. There are two types of Freedoms.
Our Sages teach that there is the quick type of freedom - that is the particular freedom of Yetziat Mitzrayim, of the Exodus from Egypt. But then there is also the freedom that is slow, and that is the redemption of the entire world. That is a redemption that requires daily work. That is the redemption that is sometimes hard to see. We sometimes get glimpses of that freedom; the incremental work required to bring about redemption occasionally allows us to see the light.
King knew that the redemption would not be quick. It would take time, it would take decades. It would take lifetimes. There is still much work to be done, there is still a redemption that is coming, even though it is slow. And I pray that we can be inspired by the Pesach story to seek out Freedom and Liberation in all dark corners of the world. And I pray that we are inspired by the work of King. He felt that his moment was the moment. Let our moment be the moment, too.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
Please click here to join our Shabbat morning service, live-streamed from our sanctuary at 9:15AM on Shabbat morning. Yuntif davening will also be streamed at 9:15 on Sunday.
