But what is equally significant is that we are commanded in the verse to always remember the salvation, i. e the day of redemption but not the preceding trauma. This is echoed in God’ s commandment to us not to hold a grudge against the Egyptian despite the fact that they enslaved our people“ You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. 4 Esau who threatened the existence of the entire Jewish nation when he tried to murder Jacob is seen as a brother. The Egyptians are seen as our hosts in their land and not a people that murdered our children and oppressed us. We are commanded not to remember these traumas but to let them go. Why are these traumatic memories forgotten? Why are we commanded to process these traumas and move on? Because trauma is antithetical to creating a covenantal community.
The covenantal community needs to move on with life to focus on its mission and not be obsessed with trauma of the past. Trauma no matter how significant does not determine our reaction to it or how we choose to remember it. It is the narrative we create in response to the trauma that determines if we will be able to overcome the loss and the pain and rebuild again. The Passover Seder is a ritual designed to process the collective trauma. It invites the participants to actively create a narrative starting with slavery and oppression, then progressing to liberation and nationhood, allowing them to confront past experiences and find meaning in their own lives. The Seder ' s unique structure, incorporating sensory experiences like food and
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Deuteronomy 23:7
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