Our Daily Kavanot during Passover will feature pieces from our Wise Passover Haggadah Supplement. Each day, our clergy will focus on a different element of the Passover holiday.
Lamentation and Deliverance
By Rabbi Josh Knobel
Although many of the most memorable moments from the Exodus narrative come from the miraculous feats performed by God on behalf of the Israelites, the deliverance of Israel begins not with Divine deeds, but with perhaps the most human act of all:
“And God said [to Moses], ‘I have marked well the plight of My people in Egypt and have heard their outcry because of their taskmasters; yes, I am mindful of their sufferings. I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.'” (Exodus 3:7-8)
According to God, who reveals the Divine plan to free Israel to Moses at the burning bush, it is the Israelites’ cries of despair that in fact spark the flames of their liberation. The people Israel is reborn not simply because God intervenes, but because our ancestors acknowledged and lamented their own suffering, beckoning God’s aid.
This may suggest that lamentation constitutes an essential part of the cycle of rebirth, a cycle we celebrate during Passover, also known as Chag HaAviv, the Festival of Spring. As human beings, we benefit from acknowledging the obstacles we face and the constraints placed upon us, as we continually seek growth and change throughout our life journeys.
In order to experience the transformation this season affords, we must first acknowledge and lament the suffering we mean to leave behind. Only then may we truly experience deliverance from Mitzrayim, from the narrow constraints that bind us, into the spaciousness we seek. As we celebrate how our people’s cries ignited their redemption, perhaps we, too, may consider how lamentation may provide us with the opportunity for rebirth in the days and weeks to come.