In Every Generation

We are on the cusp of freedom. Well, in the Torah reading cycle, anyway. This week, in Parashat Bo, God carries out the final plagues against Egypt and next week, on Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song, we will cross the Sea of Reeds, with Pharaoh's army in hot pursuit. Our Torah portion teaches us to explain the Passover rituals: "And you shall explain to your child on that day, 'It is because of what the Eternal did for me when I went free from Egypt'" (Exodus 13:8). In the Talmud (B. Pesachim 116b), the rabbis look at this verse and say בְּכָל דּור וָדור חַיּיב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִילוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם (b'chol dor va-dor chayav adam lir'ot et atzmo k'ilu hu yatza mi-mitzrayim), In every generation a person is obligated to look at himself or herself as though he or she personally departed from Egypt. When we celebrate Passover and our freedom, we are not celebrating something that someone else before us experienced. Instead, the rabbis demand that we understand that it is our own liberation from bondage that we are celebrating.

In her version of Im Ein Ani Li, Debbie Friedman links Hillel's words from Pirke Avot 1:14 (If I am not for myself who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?) to the words from Pesachim 116b. In doing so, Debbie Friedman reminds us of our obligation to take care of the needs of others not only because it is the right thing to do, but because we, ourselves, have been the downtrodden, not our ancestors, but us. It is because of the fact that God brought us out of Egypt that we celebrate Passover and Debbie Friedman teaches, with her music, that the debt we owe God for having redeemed us demands that we stand up not only for ourselves, but for others, as well.

This week, Debbie Friedman was hospitalized in Orange County, California for pneumonia. As I am writing this, she is in a medically induced coma, in critical condition. Debbie was in the 1967 Confirmation class at Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul, Minnesota and later went on to become one of the leading musicians of Reform Judaism. Her music framed my Jewish identity in my teen years, helping me celebrate and comforting me. There have been calls for congregations and individuals to join in singing Debbie Friedman's Mi Shebeirach, sending prayers of healing her way. The lyrics can be found here.