And next year may there be (at least) one more at the table

April 3, 2007 at 9:58 am | Posted in AdoptThis! | 20 Comments

That’s my Passover wish for all of us out there who are adopting/ttcing.

When I was studying abroad in Germany, I went to a seder led by a lubavitcher rebbe (I didn’t know that this would be the case when I went to it!) Aside from the fact that we didn’t start eating until midnight, because he spoke only English and everything had to be translated into German and Russian, I was also taken aback by the way he interpreted the story of the Exodus as a story about chosenness. I had never heard the Passover story interpreted that way, and it enraged me.

In my family seders and in the ones that I’ve had with family and friends since setting out as an adult, I choose to focus more on images of justice and freedom from bondage. We spill a drop of wine and take away from our joy to mark the fact that our liberation meant the suffering of the Egyptians.

This year this story rings even more true for me. I think of Moses’ mother, Yocheved, watching her child be raised by Pharoah’s daughter, knowing that by giving up her child, she saved his life – and lost the chance to live as his mother.

In the section about the plagues, the haggadah that we are using this year says:
“Help us to dream new paths to freedom, so that the next sea-opening is not also a drowning; so that our singing is never again their wailing. So that our freedom leaves no one orphaned, childless, gasping for air.”

To which I (& Guatebaby) say amen.

Wishing you and yours a very sweet and peaceful Pesach.