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    Freedom – hope & fulfilment

    Pesach has two tastes, the sweet and the sour.

    Slavery in Egypt, Golden Haggadah Catalonia, early 1300s

    The sour is bitter slavery; the sweet is welcome emergence into freedom.

    All this is understandable if we position the festival in ancient history. But looking backwards must not be the limit of our experience of Pesach.

    The struggle for freedom is never entirely lost, nor is it ever entirely won. So long as human beings yearn for a better future and refuse to abandon hope, their struggle is not lost.

    So long as people remember at what cost their blessings were attained, they know that freedom is a fragile thing and must never be taken for granted.

    In some ways we are worse off than our ancestors, since our struggle for redemption is far more complex than theirs.

    But we are also infinitely better off, since we have so many memories of deep human aspirations that did bear fruit and we know it can happen again with God’s help if only we remain firm in faith and determination.

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