By centering the experience of the stranger, of the vulnerable other within us and before us, our tradition beckons us back from numbness. By dipping karpas into salt water, we turn the seder from a cognitive experience into one that can shift our stony hearts into flow and feeling.
So this Passover let us become a dwelling: let us dip, let us taste the salt on our tongues, let us savor the taste of rebirth paired with grief when we crunch on spring vegetables dipped in salt. Let us have the courage to draw upon the unbearable feelings within, becoming more intimate with our own feelings of vulnerability, powerlessness and grief; in short, to let our tears flow for ourselves, for our ancestors and for the increasingly endangered by the forces of oppression. May that shared experience give us strength to stand up for the strangers in our midst.
Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses is the first woman from the Syrian Jewish community to become a rabbi. She is a recent recipient of a Covenant Award for exceptional educators. She currently serves Romemu as a rabbi, and also teaches widely and writes about Torah, ethnicity and disabilities.
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