H ere we are Pesach night about to celebrate our original independence and the forging of our Jewish nationhood. So where are the fireworks the pageants and the speeches? Why don’t we celebrate the most momentous event in our history as the nations of the world celebrate theirs? Or at least the way the State of Israel celebrates its Independence Day? Why not let our joy burst out? Why not gather en masse in the city squares with entertainers on a stage with music dancing and a pyrotechnic show shooting through the night sky leaving trails of blazing color? Why not bring the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim to life in an epic film full of special effects required viewing for all on this night including those under 16? Wouldn’t this stir our souls more deeply than sitting at home with the family chomping on matzah and reading out the Haggadah?
To be honest is there anything really exciting about the Pesach Seder? Granted the house is sparkling clean and the atmosphere is festive and serene with the family gathered around a beautifully set table with Haggados in their hands reading the familiar story for the umpteenth time. We drink the four cups of wine and eat the matzah leaning to the left sit up straight for the maror (while competing for who can eat the biggest chunk of horseradish) open the door for Eliyahu Hanavi and perform various other familiar customs often with a certain sense of self-imposed duress. But where is the drama the action that would take the quiet joy we’re meant to be feeling and make it explode into a burst of and ecstasy and song as would really befit this night of liberation when we recall our first and primal redemption?
It’s a fundamental question: Why indeed do we celebrate Pesach this way each family around its own table quietly going through the familiar motions? As one of the gedolei mussar put it:
“According to our own imagination would it not seem more effective more rousing if every town held a big banquet for the entire community with songs and speeches in honor of the day? It would be even more rousing if they put on a show depicting Yetzias Mitzrayim and in these times we could even use the latest technology to make the show quite spectacular and to show Yetzias Mitzrayim with total realism. This way we would recall the whole story better and we would be more stirred and aroused than we are by eating maror leaning to the left and so on” (Rav Yosef Yehudah Bloch Shiurei Daas vol. I Nishmas HaTorah).
