Tonight marks the second night of Passover, the Jewish festival of freedom. It is customary to hold a seder meal (at least one) during this week, and the prescriptions call for a big feast that is customarily shared between friends.
Tonight, for the second year in a row, I was invited to participate in a seder meal at the home of some friends. Each year, different people grace their table, and they take great joy and pride in sharing these sacred traditions with all those who are willing to join in their celebration. For our part, we rejoice with them, and are most grateful for their gift of hospitality.
Sharing the traditions of faith, especially those which centre around food and story, are extremely important for they remind us that ours is also part of this story that is told and retold each year. Partaking in the seder also allows us to celebrate something that is common among us, and it affords us an opportunity for friendly conversation about all manner of current events and topics of interest.
These kinds of traditions are extremely important not only for the sake of perpetuating faith and collective memory, but simply for the fact that they allow us to share our joys and struggles with others, to recognize our similarities and even to begin resolving some of our differences. Passover is about celebrating freedom, and freedom begins when we recognize the things that bind us, and then work (together when possible) to loosen the bonds that enslave us, and to strengthen the bonds of friendship that keep us together.
Small gestures of hospitality can speak volumes.
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