Every year at Passover, we recite these words from the Haggadah:
“My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil, and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Did you ever wonder where these words came from? They came from this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo. They are found in Deuteronomy 26:5-9. It is the declaration the Israelites are told to make before the priests when they first enter the Land of Israel and bring the offering of first fruits to the designated place (i.e. the Temple in Jerusalem).
This is the foundational story of the Jewish people. Not that we are descended from gods and kings. Not that we had great armies or did mighty deeds. But that we were the lowliest people, slaves, and we were redeemed from slavery, not for our own sake, but because of God’s relationship with our ancestors. We are told to recite this history, even at the moment of joy and celebration, even after we have settled into the land and reaped a bountiful harvest. It is precisely at moments of joy and triumph that it is most important to remember where we came from and to temper celebration with humility.
The stories we tell are what makes us human. They connect us to our past, provide a guidepost to our future, and teach us lessons we then retell and carry on to the next generation. As we approach the High Holy Day season, and engage in heshbon ha-nefesh, the self-examination of our souls, let us think about what stories we are telling to ourselves and to our next generations – what are the lessons we take from those stories, and what are the lessons we want to be sure to impart to the generations to come?
-Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
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