For Your Consideration - Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro

     On April 4, 1967, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of his most famous speeches. He spoke before a giant audience at New York City’s Riverside Church and gave an impassioned sermon against American involvement in Vietnam.
      As we enter April 2005, I recently had an opportunity to reread King’s call for peace. I was especially impressed to see that King began his speech by acknowledging the presence of several people in the congregation. I didn’t recognize most of the names, but I did know one of them. King began his remarks by specifically
mentioning the honored presence of a rabbi! He welcomed Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the first clergy to begin speaking out against Vietnam back in the 1960’s.

      It’s a little known fact that, if King had not been assassinated in April 1968, he would have been at Rabbi Heschel’s home for the Seder later that very month. Reverend King and Rabbi Heschel knew there was something special about the Seder. If taken seriously, the Passover message about freedom and justice could shake the world and remake the world.

      Heading toward Passover 2005, I am always mindful of the potential in our celebration. Sometimes the Seder does become nothing more than a dinner party. Sometimes, however, the Seder can touch on the themes and challenges that Reverend King and Rabbi Heschel would have shared at their Seder.

      That is why I will be sending you a Seder Supplement in around two weeks. It will contain some readings and suggestions that you may use at your Seder.

      It will also contain comments about something as mundane as how you eat for the week of Passover. How can avoiding leavened/chametz products even merit mention alongside the grand themes of peace or justice? I believe they’re connected because we human beings don’t only need to talk about our values. We also need to act on them.

      For me, not eating leavened/chametz products one week a year is a way of proving that I am not enslaved to my body’s habits. I break the “bread habit” as a way of affirming that I can (with hard work) break the habit of moral indifference. If I can break that habit, I am on my way toward the world envisioned by the Seder. Have a good Pesach! Have a challenging Seder! Eat well! Eat wisely!

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