APRIL 6 • 2023 | 49

not be concerned about that 
great city?” Jonah 4:10-11
God teaches Jonah to care 
by giving him something 
and then taking it away. 
Loss teaches us to value 
things, though usually too 
late. What we have, and 
then lose, we do not take for 
granted. The religious vision 
is not about seeing things 
that are not there. It is about 
seeing the things that are 
there and always were, but 
which we never noticed or 
paid attention to. Faith is 
a form of attention. It is a 
sustained meditation on the 
miraculousness of what is 
because it might not have 
been. 
What we lose and are 
given back we learn to cher-
ish in a way we would not 
have done had we never lost 
it in the first place. Faith is 
about not taking things for 
granted.
This is the key to under-
standing a whole series of 
narratives in the book of 
Genesis. Sarah, Rebecca and 
Rachel long to have chil-
dren but discover that they 
are infertile. Only through 
God’s intervention are they 
able to conceive. Abraham 
goes through the trial of 
the binding of Isaac, only to 
discover that God, who has 
asked him to sacrifice his 
child, says “Stop” at the last 
moment. 
This is how the covenantal 
family learns that having 
children is not something 
that merely happens. It is 
how the people of Israel 
learned, at the dawn of their 
history, never to take chil-
dren for granted. Jewish con-
tinuity, the raising of new 
generations of Jews, is not 
natural, inevitable, a process 
that takes care of itself. It 
needs constant effort and 
attention. The same is true 
of freedom.
Freedom in the biblical 
sense — responsible self-re-
straint — is not natural. To 
the contrary, the natural 
order in human societies, 
as it is in the animal king-

dom, is that the strong prey 
on and dominate the weak. 
Nothing is rarer or harder 
to achieve than a society of 
equal dignity for all. Merely 
to conceive it requires a 
massive disengagement 
from nature. The Torah tells 
us how this was achieved, 
through the historical 
experience of a people who 
would ever afterward be the 
carriers of God’s message to 
humankind.
Israel had to lose its free-
dom before it could cherish 
it. Only what we lose do we 
fully pay attention to. Israel 
had to suffer the experience 
of slavery and degradation 
before it could learn, know 
and feel intuitively that there 
is something morally wrong 
about oppression. Nor could 
it, or any other people, carry 
this message in perpetuity 
without reliving it every 
year, tasting the harsh tang 
of the bread of affliction 
and the bitterness of slavery. 
Thus was created, at the 
birth of the nation, a long-
ing for freedom that was at 
the very core of its memory 
and identity.
Had Israel achieved 
immediate nationhood in 
the patriarchal age without 
the experience of exile and 
persecution, it would — like 
so many other nations in 
history — have taken free-
dom for granted; and when 
freedom is taken for grant-
ed, it has already begun to 
be lost. 
Israel became the people 
conceived in slavery so that 
it would never cease to long 
for liberty — and know 
that liberty is anything but 
natural. It requires constant 
vigilance, unceasing moral 
struggle. Israel discovered 
freedom by losing it. May it 
never lose it again. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 

served as the chief rabbi of the 

United Hebrew Congregations of the 

Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His teach-

ings have been made available to all 

at rabbisacks.org. This is an extract 

from The Jonathan Sacks Haggadah.

W

ow! This year, I 
entered Passover on 
a high.
Just days before the start of the 
holiday, I had the pleasure of par-
ticipating in a parade of “Mitzvah 
Tanks,
” armed with shmurah 
matzah, tefillin, Shabbat and hol-
iday candles and Passover 
information, aka Mobile 
Mitzvah Centers. 
What a pleasure to meet 
Jewish people all over the 
Detroit Metro area, from 
Campus Martius Park to 
the suburbs. It was special 
to see people’s eyes light up 
as they accepted our gift of 
shmurah matzah and tell us 
with pride that they would 
be bringing them to their 
family Pesach seders.
I have no doubt that these 
handmade matzahs — made 
according to time-hallowed 
traditions — added to the spirit-
ed conversation at seders all over 
the city. And it’s not over yet. 
The final two days of Passover — 
Tuesday evening until Thursday 
night — are also laden with sig-
nificance, ritual and redemption. 
In addition to lighting can-
dles, enjoying festive meals and 
attending Yizkor, there is another 
special element to the closing 
portion of Passover. On the sev-
enth day, we celebrate the miracle 
of the Splitting of the Sea, after 
which the people “trusted in 
God and His servant Moses.
” 
And on the eighth day, we read 
the Haftorah about the future 
redemption, the era of Moshiach, 
which will eclipse the miracles of 
the Exodus in its sheer miracu-
lousness. The spirit of Moshiach 
and redemption permeates the 

entire day and gives it a special 
energy just waiting for us to tap 
and experience.
How do we do it? Chassidic 
custom, dating back to the Baal 
Shem Tov, on the final after-
noon of Passover, dictates that 
we gather for a special feast 
known as Moshiach’s 
Meal. It’s celebrated by 
eating matzah, drinking 
four cups of wine or 
grape juice and lively 
discussions of the future 
redemption and how 
we can begin to taste its 
spiritual bliss in our lives 
today. 
Now, here is what 
makes this Moshiach’s 
meal so relevant to us: 
We are presently in a 
Hakhel year, when Jews 
are enjoined to gather to 
connect with each other 
and our tradition through Torah 
study and sharing inspiration. As 
I see it, this meal is the ultimate 
Hakhel gathering. With Jews get-
ting together, Torah being shared 
and hearts united with Jewish 
inspiration. What could possibly 
be better than that? 
So, if you have never hosted 
or attended a Moshiach’s Meal 
before, this is the year to begin, 
either by joining one at your 
local Chabad House or by host-
ing your own. And if you live 
near our beautiful Shul commu-
nity, we’
d be delighted to host 
you at our Moshiach’s Meal on 
Thursday, the final day of Pesach. 
Find out more at theshul.net/
events. 

Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov is spiritual 

director of The Shul in West Bloomfield.

The Spirit of 
Redemption

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Kasriel 
Shemtov

Parshat 

Pesach Hol 

Hamoed: 

Exodus 

33:12-34:26; 

Numbers 

28:19-25; 

Ezekiel 

37:1-14.

