Pesach Playlist

Because any good journey needs a soundtrack. Put it on shuffle and shake off your shackles.


Freedom! '90, George Michael

Now We Are Free, Jenny Jordan Frogley

To Zion, Lauryn Hill

Think (Freedom), Aretha Franklin

Free Your Mind, En Vogue

Dog Days Are Over, Florence + The Machine

A Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke

Freedom Train, Lenny Kravitz

Time To Move On, Tom Petty

Free Bird, Lynyrd Skynyrd


xo cbg

Dayenu

Thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy; Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew'st Tybalt; there are thou happy too;
The law that threaten'd death becomes thy friend
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy;
A pack of blessings lights up upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.

The above admonishment is given by Friar Laurence to Leonardo DiCaprio Romeo in Shakespeare's most well-known tragedy. We really could have used the wise Friar when the Israelites were grumbling about melons and leeks: Thy Lord hast brought thee out of slavery; there art thou happy. Fortunately for us, when we revisit the story of the Exodus each year, we know we're in for a happier ending than Romeo and the object of his affections. And to be fair to our ancestors in the desert, it's always easier to be grateful in retrospect. Knowing everything that came after the journey out of Egypt, we have a perspective found in Dayenu: Each blessing, each miracle, would have been enough for us.

The truth is, we all have our melons and leeks: Things we are so preoccupied with that we lose sight of the bigger and more important blessings we already have. Jewish tradition tells us that G-d creates the world anew in every moment, meaning, every blessing a person has is not given just once; it is given again and again and again. What better time than the month of rebirth to take inventory of all we have received--as individuals and as a people--and see that it is enough.

Chag Kosher V'Sameach!

xo cbg

No Going Back.

In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Socrates imagines a prisoner who breaks free from the cave where he has been held with other unfortunates, where a lack of both light and perspective have created a false reality. Such a man, the philosopher posits, would at first resist the truth once it was revealed to him. Sunlight would be blinding; so much so that his initial instinct would be to return to his former familiar captivity.

Incredulously, we read the kvetching of the Israelites to Moses after the Exodus. Under the Egyptians, they experienced hardships beyond imagining, backbreaking work for no pay, even infanticide. And yet, at the first hint of the unfamiliar, the people are ready to run back to that existence. In spite of witnessing firsthand the miracles that led them to freedom, they find it difficult to trust G-d with the little things.

How much more so for us, who can only dream about the parting of the Red Sea. There's an old saying, "The devil you know..." about our tendency to stay in comfort zones that we know are bad for us, but that are just so comfortable. As a convert, I have felt exactly like the prisoner in Plato's tale; ignorance really was bliss in so many ways. But like that protagonist, and like my spiritual ancestors in the desert, turning back was never really an option. A taste of freedom, whether for the mind, body, or both, only increases over time. The human spirit longs for growth, for challenges to overcome, even when the road ahead is daunting.

Don't just make Pesach about cleaning or shopping or burning out on macaroons. Which deserts did you cross in the last year? Which oppressive habits will you leave behind in the months to come, marching bravely and brazenly into the unknown future?

Onwards and upwards, my fellow Jews. Chag Kosher V'Sameach!
cbg