Every year, tens of thousands of Americans take a break from their normal lives to don the military uniforms of the Union and Confederate armies, and descend onto the fields of Gettysberg to reenact the battle there fought during the American Civil War that took place 150 years ago. In the year 1998, the 135th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysberg was attended by an estimated nearly 40,000 musket- and cannon-wielding enthusiasts on the battlefield, and about 50,000 spectators.
When the War in Iraq broke out in 2003, university students from around the country swelled with excitement that their time had come for "real activism" with a "real cause," to take a stand as their parents had done in the 1960's.
We all hearken back to that heyday (whatever it may be) -- that "Golden Age" ... if only we lived back then, then we would be someone -- then we would be a hero.
The present abandoned, empty of that electricity in the air that "maybe something big will happen." The final and unfortunate consequence of this mentality, or any outlook resembling it, is that the Now is drained or meaning, and our lives in the big picture drained of their significance.
The Son that Doesn't Know How to Ask
Everyone knows about the "Four Sons" from the Pesach Hagaddah. What people don't know is that every son in the Hagaddah and the appropriate parental response, is drawn from four explicit verses in the Torah. Each son has some sort of opening line or question, and the verse following it is the parent's custom-fitted response...except, the Son that doesn't know how to ask. Naturally, he has no verse recording his question...since he doesn't know how to ask.
The Torah goes straight into the single concept we must convey to him to open him up -- to get him to care about what it means to be a Jew:
וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ, בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר: בַּעֲבוּר זֶה, עָשָׂה יְהוָה לִי, בְּצֵאתִי, מִמִּצְרָיִם
"Tell your son on that day [Pesach night]: "Because of this [pointing to the Seder table full of matzot, bitter herbs, charoset, etc.] G!d acted for me in my departing from Egypt." (Shmot 13:8).The latter part of this verse resonates with the more well-known idea that "In every generation, every person is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt" (Hagaddah, Pesachim 116b). A parent or Jewish educator must be able to convey to his child or student that he genuinely feels that he has been freed from his personal slavery through Torah and mitzvot and his relationship to the Almighty. He must be able to say these words "G!d acted for me" straight-faced and believe it for the student to believe him and begin to open up. A Jew has an obligation to be aware of how far he has come in his own life -- breaking free from bad habits, anger problems, superficiality, and the immaturity of his youth. This is the more well-known part of the verse.
The first half of the verse has a nuance that one could overlook his entire life, but one so powerful that in can supercharge his whole vision of the Now -- of the present in front of him at any given time. Rav Shlomo Wolbe points out that we are trained to see time as event A leads to event B leads to event C leads to the Present. This is a G!d-less vision of history. It represents a history without direction, without endpoint. Just as we educate ourselves week by week to see the six days leading into Shabbat -- the endpoint and purpose of the week's efforts, so too must we look at our lives and human history. This concept, which is the key to unlocking a Jewish neshama hidden inside the vault of jaded apathy, flips our concept of history on its head. Inside-out actually...
It's not that we keep mitzvot because we're reenacting or memorializing our past. We don't have the Pesach seder because we left Egypt; we left Egypt because of our Pesach seder. בַּעֲבוּר זֶה because of this -- because of the mitzvot we are doing right now (e.g. matzot, telling over the leaving of Egypt) -- this prayer with kavana (concentration), this effort we are making to help a friend through a problem, this kind word of loving encouragement we tell our spouse, this candlelighting, this Torah concept I am working to get clear...because of THIS, Hashem -- the Creator of Heaven and Earth, King of the Universe took 2 and a half million Jews out of Egypt with never-before-seen wonders and miracles.
What we do today makes everything leading up to it worthwhile. If you are a Jew reading this, you must realize that you are a survivor the son of survivors the son of survivors. Chosen indeed. By definition. 3,500 years of Jewish history is invested in you and everything that you can do to make life better for those around you, to connect to G!d or help others connect -- all of it is cosmically significant. Just as the Almighty Himself protected us in the desert on all sides with Clouds of Glory, and just as He, in all His greatness, Himself protects every Jewish home with a mezuza, so too, the Almighty is watching this moment cheering for us to succeed -- everything in the past is riding on what we make of the present.
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