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The Passover dishes, pots and pans, cutlery and everything else have been safely stored away until next year.  You most probably put on 10,000 steps just going down and up from the basement. The leftovers that you have had enough of are now history. Of course in the back of the drawer you just found an extra meat fork, but the box is underneath six boxes that are all carefully taped closed.  So you put it in a plastic bag and stick it in any available Passover box because you are not unpacking everything for one fork. No matter how often you sweep and vacuum, rest assured you will continue to find matza crumbs for several more weeks. Now you have to figure how to repack the cabinets to include opened packages and boxes from Passover with the chametz.  Isn’t Passover such a joy?

Lost in all of the pre-Passover and post -Passover work are the special moments experienced at the Seder. I hope that the annual stream of memories grew for you with new ones, as one of the oldest tales on this planet continues to be relived some 3,500 years later. Within that comes what might be the most challenging part: how to experience the slavery that our ancestors lived? No matter the readings, the customs and the foods, unless you have personally been a slave, it is difficult to comprehend. While we can acknowledge the tragic reality that there are still enslaved people today, our metaphors of being a slave to our work, the clock, an addiction, or anything else that you might name do not approximate authentic slavery.

Rashi, the great medieval French Rabbi and commentator, who lived in Troyes, France from 1040 to 1105, raises this question by trying to resolve the mandate in the Haggadah that in each generation we are to personally see ourselves as having left Egypt. He raises a profound question: What would have happened had the Exodus not occurred? Our ancestors would have remained slaves in Egypt, there would have been no Exodus, and most likely assimilated into the Egyptian population.  In essence, there might not have been any Jews. This would certainly have pleased the antisemites, although there is a Jewish joke that declares that if the Jews did not exist, the antisemites would have invented us so that there would be a group to foist their H upon.

Rashi’s question is indeed an important one to ask, yet his answer is even better. It is because of the Exodus, and if you will, the entire list of things that God has done for us as enumerated in the Dayenu, that should make us express a valuable emotion: gratitude. Had God not taken us out of Egypt, we would not have been sitting at our tables retelling the story, because we most likely would not be here. Unthinkable yet profound indeed! Rashi suggests that when we find it difficult to understand the slavery of our ancestors, we must express our gratitude that we exist to struggle with this challenge.

How do express our gratitude? Do more Jewish. They’re called mitzvot.  Be more generous with your time and your tzedakah. Come to shul. Light Shabbat candles.  Make Kiddush and Motzi and have a Shabbat dinner. You get the idea. Each mitzvah is an expression of gratitude to God for the Exodus.  Plus, it doesn’t hurt to spread a bit more good around. The world needs it. Now about that fork!