Passover Part 1: It’s Not About Freedom, but What You Do With Your Freedom

In this sermon, I analyze the opening of the seder (and conclude with a short tribute to a close friend, Holocaust survivor and Woman of Valor Rae Harvey.)

Reclining at dinner, drinking wine, and getting to eat karpas , a Greco-Roman appetizer, is freedom? Seriously?  The first part of the seder is a wicked satire that mocks the fool's answer to the central question of the Seder, "What is freedom?"

The Jewish answer to "What is freedom?" is that Freedom is about What You Do With Your Freedom. How you answer that question depends on Your Story, your Maggid, from mitzrayim to a chance to use your freedom.  Only the person who identifies with oppression knows that the real answer to the seder's central question is: "Real freedom is the freedom to serve God."