Pesach in America. It's Not Ham on Matzah

American Jewry's greatest challenge (at least until now) has been how to maintain our Jewish identity while living in the most free and accepting land we have ever encountered in our long exile, (Moshiach should come immediately and redeem us all). While Jews have flourished in America, Judaism struggled until it emerged into a strong, vibrant force where yeshivas are over-flowing with both men and women learning at levels in many cases, that their parents and grandparents never would have imagined nor were able to achieve.  The strength and fortitude of previous generations granted us both the blessings of financial and spiritual achievement in America.  Freedom and free will combined with fortitude and sacrifice has created a Torah world that would be envied by Lithuanian, Polish or Belarusian Jews (had they lived to see it HYD).  Freedom and free will also triggered the yetzer hara of those inclined to convince themselves that Hashem's eyes were averted to their misdeeds and fantasies of plausible deniability.

In Egypt, by contrast the struggle was a different one - a two part survival struggle of body  and soul. A nation - Mitzrayim choking individuality with crushing servitude and a Paroh who represents as a god-king an overwhelming personality supplanting all others, erasing respective individuality all at once. Yet the more they Jews were oppressed the stronger they became. 

When HaShem sends Moshe to begin the redemption from Egypt, the task before him seems impossible, enough that he complains about his assignment and experiences rejection by the very people he was sent to liberate.

Against all natural odds, redemption does indeed happen, but only in miraculous ways.  G-d manipulates nature to fight both Egyptian mastery and false moral authority.  Paroh and his Egypt are broken enough to not only allow the Jewish slaves, the lowliest part of their society (but still their society -"their" meaning ownership over domination) to venture away from Egypt  -  but to worship a foreign deity (the Creator, G-d of the Heavens and the Earth, the Jewish people's G-d in a non-Egyptian holiday lasting for three days.  That's it - 3 days.  Physical and spiritual liberation are at hand.

No other event in Jewish history marks the reality of and uniqueness of Jewish existence. Well before the revelation of Torah at Sinai (with which Jews will encounter 50 days later) will eventually record in Dev. 23:9 "..

"For from their beginning, I see them as mountain peaks, and I behold them as hills; it is a nation that will dwell alone, and will not be reckoned among the nations."

No other event in history records the separation of one nation from another nation in such miraculous fashion.  The Haggadah relates:

"Has any G‑d ever tried to take for himself a nation from the midst of another nation, with trials, signs and wonders, with war and with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great manifestations, like all that the L-rd your G‑d, did for you in Egypt before your eyes!"

(Perhaps a strong hand to punish the aggressors and an outstretched arm to draw His people to Himself).

To become a nation of priests, a holy people, and a special treasured people, the Jewish people had to be redeemed from Egypt.  No other holiday in the Jewish calendar screams G-d loves you and wants you to be His own more than Pesach.

Jewish wealth is not houses and gold. The everlasting Jewish wealth is: Being Jews who keep Torah and Mitzvot, and bringing into the world children and grandchildren who keep Torah and Mitzvot.

HaYom Yom Nissan 9

The redemption from Egypt, we learn was solely G-d's doing. G-d rescued Israel, a nation with little merit beyond the promise made to it's Forefather Avraham.

"And we cried out to the L-rd, the G‑d of our fathers," as it is said: "During that long period, the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel groaned because of the    servitude, and they cried out. And their cry for help from their servitude rose up to G‑d." "And the L-rd heard our voice" as it said: "And G‑d heard their groaning, and G‑d remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

"And he saw our suffering," this refers to the separation of husband and wife, as it is said: "G‑d saw the children of Israel and G‑d took note." In order for there to be a Jewish people, it had to be possible to identify who was Jewish.  It seems trivial and logical, but a slave nation is unable to determine its destiny. All the decisions and directions of a prisoner are determined by the guards and rulers.  A free nation, a free people can live out its own destiny.  What makes a Jew - well - Jewish is Torah and halacha.  Without Torah and halacha, destiny is left to whims and fancies follow the path of secular knowledge and secular belief.  Torah and secular have very different sources of authority. The latter is no longer bound to core values.  Make no mistake, if a Jew walks away from the path G-d chose for the Jew, to be his means of influence in the world his destiny will find him nonetheless.  Jews choosing another path, trying to abandon their past and their destiny will be reminded who and what they are.   Esoterically speaking, Ha Lach Ma Anya, included early in the Magid portion of the Haggadah is saying.  "this is the bread of affliction our fathers ate in the land Egypt"  Ate? Bread? The yoke of being chosen as first born, is wrapped over our people. Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat - The Jew has entered the world to bring Torah, those who want to learn, come and learn. Whoever is in need, let him come and conduct the Seder of Passover - leaping, passing from his previous way to a new and higher path. This year we are here, next year we will be free people. The time to start is now. Leave your current place and grow, leave your Egypt behind and seek Sinai, come to the Torah. You can only be free when you find yourself.  Ha Lach Ma Anya invites all to come, not just Jew but anyone hungering for truth.  הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִּי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח. הָשַּׁתָּא הָכָא, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל. הָשַּׁתָּא עַבְדֵי, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat; whoever is in need, let him come and conduct the Seder of Passover. This year [we are] here; next year in the land of Israel. This year [we are] slaves; next year [we will be] free people.

The flip side of the equation comes near the end of Magid. 

וְהִיא שֶׁעָמְדָה לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ וְלָנוּ. שֶׁלֹּא אֶחָד בִּלְבָד עָמַד עָלֵינוּ לְכַלּוֹתֵנוּ, אֶלָּא שֶׁבְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר עוֹמְדִים עָלֵינוּ לְכַלוֹתֵנוּ, וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַצִּילֵנוּ מִיָּדָם.

It is this [promise] that has stood by our ancestors and us. More than one [enemy] has risen up against us to destroy us. Rather, in every generation they rise against us to annihilate us. The Holy One, blessed be He, however, saves us from their hand.

There,  you now have a positive and negative reminder.  Both paragraphs contain a reference to an undefined "this".  The bread of affliction and the promise seem tied together, anchoring the Magid portion of the Seder.  This is your portion Israel, G-d will help you in your task. 

Which brings us to the article below.  The prescription below is a remedy for ending Judaism in America. This is 'dayenu' surrender to modernity.  The Haggadah challenges the Jew to move past Egypt not to return to it.  To become Egyptian is what Paroh wants us to do, saying - forget about freedom and live as slaves within the Egyptian culture and Egyptian rituals.  The Haggadah tells us that leaving Egypt is a beginning not an ending. We must continue to leave Egypt every year, month, week and day. 

While it is clear the Haggadah invites everyone to the Seder, as discussed above, it says, leave your past behind you. The evening of the 15th of Nissan's special character involves matzah.  Matzah, is flat, honest and real.  Noted by many, matzah's deflated nature is symbolic of the need to find our true selves. Where leavening is allowed, self imagery in portrait form blocks the mirror's reflection.  The mirror reflects the heart of the Jew. The artist's license and picture is artificial.  

Asking Judaism to accept a pathway for destruction is schizophrenia.  Jewish law does not and should not be asked to radically diverge to match the waywardness of a generation.   The writer below quotes statistics to justify his assertion that the problem with Judaism is - Judaism.  This false dichotomy is defeated by the very statistics the writer quotes.  By virtue of the fact that "Orthodox" Jews marry Jews, live as Jews and will have Jewish progeny, it makes no sense to adopt the suggestions below. 

It is not Judaism alienating anyone.  However, like the Jews unable to leave Egypt or grow beyond the enticements of the Egypt they choose, generations of Jews will be lost to the world and to the ultimate redemption.  Those Jews who have exercised their free will to marry out, choose "other" when offered a Torah class or when asked to visit the shul, and send their Jewish children to schools which teach everything but how to live Jewishly have no leg to stand upon calling for other Jews to follow their lead.  However, the door is open going in the other direction.  The Rebbe stated many times, all Jews, inside want to do what is right, even if they actively say otherwise.  The holy spark inside may be flickering but it can be ignited.  So often, they are merely waiting to be convinced to change, to return, to be drawn in and sadly are turned away not finding the inspiration their souls seek.  Pesach is the time to find that inspiration.  A seder can be a moving experience but only when the seder can be a seder and not a compromise.  Happy Pesach. 

Passover’s real message is about celebrating interfaith families

But a Judaism for Jews only is alienating to the vast majority of liberal Jews who do intermarry, to their partners and to their families.

...

Expressing a preference that our children marry Jews conveys a message that partners from different faiths and interfaith relationships are suboptimal. That risks alienating those who do intermarry, as so many will. We cannot prefer inmarriage and be as radically inclusive as we need to be.

Haggadah, Bible excerpts from Chabad.org, Sefaria.org