By Rabbi Ben Kamin
ENCINITAS, California — A bittersweet irony it is that the freedom festival of Passover arrives on the 47th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and one day before the rebirth of hope—Easter Sunday.
We go to our April festivals this year with a thousand cuts on our soul—from the lost Arab Spring that once blossomed in Tunisia to the flip racism and sexism of Twitter: Trevor Noah‘s ugly little social media detonations have defiled yet another entrance. Slavery and its mantras are unbounded, unrepentant, and openly messaged.
On theological paper, everybody is working the same prose. In real life, Dr. King’s spirit has never been more fleeting, Passover more flouted and messianic dreams more numb.
We have a long march ahead before we really get to the Promised Land of liberty and human dignity—and thus defeat the sickness of slavery. As MLK often said, “No one is free until everyone is free.”
King was felled by a single bullet as he stood on the balcony outside Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. at 6:01 PM on April 4, 1968. The preacher was in Memphis to try and help some garbage workers get a ten-cent per hour raise, some clean work wear, and a union. The black men who comprised the city sanitation force were not even permitted to enter the white-only work lounges during rainstorms.
This was slavery. Memphis, Tenn. in those days was the moral equivalent of ancient Memphis, Egypt; the mayor of the city was nothing less than an urban Pharaoh. What happened in the Book of Exodus was the advent of the world’s first civil rights movement.
The old Scripture tells us that God “heard the cries of the Hebrews in Egypt” and took a very powerful interest in the situation. The legendary plagues and parting of the Red Sea are the literary beacons of God’s indignation with the reality of human bondage.
All Pharaonic situations, from Ramses to Little Rock, Arkansas, amount to slavery. Passover is the ethical springtime of the human spirit and Martin Luther King died at this season because, in his words, “I’ve decided to choose love over hate.” His words bothered a lot of people’s sensibilities.
And they still do. ISIS is committing unspeakable crimes of bondage and horror that would turn Pharaoh’s courtiers red-faced. Russian government mobsters are basking in homicidal Soviet nostalgia. Africa, the mother of this earth, remains a savage continent that devours its own inhabitants.
So what do we do? Jews: don’t just eat the Passover foods. Nourish yourselves with the moral outrage of the Haggadah—stand up and decry it when an Israeli prime minister resorts to racism in order to win an election. Assert that the Israeli narrative, bred of scripture, is much better than that.
Christians: resurrect the tenderness of Jesus and open your eyes to the skewing of that sweet theme by political-evangelistic manipulators. Muslims: continue to show your brave protestations against that segment of the faith who are murdering the inclusive message of Mohammed.
From the Seder tables of America to the pagodas of China to the olive groves of the Holy Land, let freedom ring!
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Rabbi Kamin is an author and freelance writer. Your comment may be sent to ben.kamin@sdjewishworld.com, or posted on this website per the instructions below.
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