“As If” – Passover Teaches Empathy

The sages teach, “In every generation every individual must feel ‘as if’’ s/he came out of Egypt.” Two little words, ‘as if’, which are the hallmark of what this upcoming holiday is about, being able to imagine, to feel, to identify, with others. As we all huddle in our homes, this year, friends and family, just a click away on Zoom, it is easy to imagine, and feel, ‘as if,’ we too must come out of Egypt. The word Mitzrayim literally means ‘from a troubled, tight and narrow place.’ Just as our ancestors were surrounded by the thick darkness of the ninth plague and hearing the sounds of death around them, so we too are enclosed by an amorphous and invisible darkness, one that threatens not only those in far off lands but indiscriminately reaches out to each and every individual in the world, no matter age, sex, color, or religion.

And if you imagine ‘as if’ you were those manning the corridors of our hospitals, makeshift healing centers, or even hotels for convalescing, you would hear the cries, the suffocating sounds, and even the last breaths of our fellows. You would feel the exhaustion and the frustration of limited supplies, the unending days of surrendering to the needs and the calls of their responsibility. You would feel the exasperation and the horrific thoughts and fears of deciding who gets the ventilator and who does not. Yes to allow our selves to feel ‘as if’ we too were those on the front lines who sacrifice, make offerings, korbanot, of themselves so ‘some will live and some will die.’

As we sit in gratitude being spared to live another day, to appreciate those with
extraordinary talent who hurriedly search for cures, to honor those who man the
grocery stores and create meals for pick up, the selfless first responders willing to
save another life though theirs is compromised, to imagine those saying goodbye to
their families, perhaps not being able to return if they too have succumb to ‘test
positive,’ – yes in every corner of this vast country there are those we must feel,
imagine, and empathize with. This Passover every individual must feel ‘as if’’ s/he is connected to the past, the ancestors who awaited a journey of liberation, to the present, our neighbors who serve and protect, and the future, those who will have left this earth after returning their last breath and those who survive holding inconsolable grief.

“In every generation every individual must feel ‘as if’ he came out of Egypt – the
restricted spaces so many of us confront knowing that true freedom surpasses
physical limitations but is the soul’s journey to awakening, to new understanding,
growth, expansion, and a gratitude for hope and life like we never felt before.