Escape Velocity: A Post-Apocalyptic Passover Haggadah

The Jewish people has rarely known a time where their hopes and dreams were not ripped from their tightly clenched fists and tossed out a window like a handful of magic beans. Indeed, history has been less than kind to the chosen ones. As the Passover Haggadah declares: In all ages they rise up against us to destroy us ... . Expulsion. Crusade. Pogrom. Pick your persecution; the Jew has known it. Yet somehow one gets the feeling that recent times have taken knowing to new levels. Never before have so many been so close to so much unabashed, raw evil. Never before have so few survived, been pushed so far and left with so little. The Holocaust: more than crusade, more than pogrom, even more than genocide was no less than deicide. And although faith was never wholly rational, it was now reduced to the ridiculous, and the faithful left wide open to ridicule. These are the times in which we find ourselves. And suddenly, the very fact becomes an imperative. In these times, we must find ourselves! The Seder night then becomes the battleground where man s stare must penetrate his own heart, and without missing a beat his heart must courageously return the gaze. The Haggadah provides a path through our long, dark exile. The scholars, with their erudition, have helped pave the way, and the pious, with their insights, have shed much light. Still, the terrain remains treacherous and misleading. Lacking both wisdom and purity of heart, I can only offer an extended hand feeble and trembling as it is. My grasp cannot lead the way; it can only reassure you that your journey need not be taken alone. Together we can venture deep into the unknown, step way out of bounds. Though we may lose our way, we just might find some direction.