A season of faith and shared connections
This is one of the most profound and meaningful months of the year for many of our religious communities. For the Jewish community, it was Passover and for the Christian communities, it was Easter. We learn so much from those sacred religious days—not only liturgy and ritual, but something much more personal. Maybe that was a lesson you learned from your parents or grandparents, teachers or clergy, friends or family. Family is the motivation for so much that we do, and these past days of Passover and Holy Week culminating with Easter. Since many of our Bluffton community are newcomers to Bluffton, this season teaches that our new congregants and friends know that they can create a local family, no matter how far away theirs might actually be by coming to our Temple Oseh Shalom for Passover, or the many churches and worship locations of their faiths. They can find like-minded people who share an emotional bond that is very strong and powerful regardless of their ages. Worship, surrounded by fellow congregants and friends, is like the link of a golden chain that connects us to the past and through us to the future.
Over the years at our Temple Oseh Shalom I have heard many times “this was the first time I have been away from my family on Passover and it was like being with a huge family.” Or “I am so glad you convinced me to come to the seder. Being with these people at our table introduced me to a whole new group of friends.” I am sure my Christian clergy colleagues have heard the same from newcomers to their congregations and communities, at your Holy Week worship as well.
For many of us both the Passover meal, called the Seder, or the Easter celebrations are a poignant and visual reminder of those whom we love, who used to be participants—the grandparents who taught us the Passover story, or the lessons of Easter. The siblings and cousins who found more easter eggs than we did or found the hidden piece of matzah, the afikomen, in that traditional children’s game at Passover.
It marks the passage of time as well. At our annual Passover celebration, I assign the liturgical parts for our seder meal and as I looked at the participants from the previous year, I remember those who were missing from our table this year, but were with us last year. Some were absent due to other plans or distance, others have passed to the blessings of life eternal. It is also a night to recognize and honor the many new people who have come into our Congregational life since last year and now mean so much.
The sense of family is the one aspect of life shared by every culture, race and people. For some it is a burden, for others a responsibility, but for most of us it is an inestimable treasure. Passover and Easter are for most of us the gate to our own personal passages. Passover and Easter are gates in another way; the gate between spring and summer, between this generation and the last, this generation and the next.
Passover and Easter were our times of sharing the foods, stories, songs, prayers, smiles, laughter, and memories that touch our lives each year.
In just a few days from now, another deeply powerful and profound event will be shared with the Jewish community around the world, a heartfelt day of memories, tributes, sadness, grief, and storytelling will take place, Yom Hashoah, the day of commemoration for the Holocaust. A deeply personal, poignant, and powerful reminder of those tragic days eighty years behind us, six million people we loved and lost, and lessons we must learn for today and tomorrow.
May we remember what these days taught us and how we must teach them for our future.
Rabbi Ken Kanter currently serves the local Jewish congregation at the Temple Oseh Shalom in Bluffton, SC.
