A Seder for the whole world
Let us celebrate a Seder for the whole world,
remembering how slave voices were raised in the plantations of America,
echoing Moses' cry to Pharoah:
Let my people go.
For it is written:
". . . say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments."
This is a promise not only for the Jews, but for all humanity.
But it is not only a promise;
it is also a warning.
Again, it is written that Moses said to Pharaoh:
". . . behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood."
And that was the beginning of ten plagues, ending with the curse upon the first-born.
Do you who enslave the world imagine that you will escape worse plagues even than the blood and the frogs and the vermin and the flies and the cattle disease and the boils and the hail and the locusts and the darkness, no and not even the curse upon the first-born?
Hear the word of the Lord:
Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people. (Deuteronomy 9:6)
Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.(Exodus 22: 21)
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked? (Job 10:3)
Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate. (Proverbs 22:22)
Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. (Amos 4:1-2)
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. (Leviticus 25:10, 13)
In the year of the jubilee the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong. (Leviticus 27:24)
I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. (Leviticus 26:13-39)
Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. (Micah 2:1-2)
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. (Luke 16:31)
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. (James 5:4)
Let us celebrate a Seder for the whole world,
not only in celebration for the liberation of slaves out of Egypt,
but in repentance for all those who have been enslaved and killed since that first Passover time.
even by those who have met each year at Pesach in celebration.
