Dramatising your own story
Because of Pesach, our history can never recede into the past and become merely a page in a history book.
The Haggadah says, “In every generation a person must regard him- or herself as if they emerged from Egypt”.
We are all there amongst the Israelites who yearned for freedom, departed from the House of Bondage, crossed the Sea, and set off through the wilderness for the Promised Land. We are with Moses and Miriam. We groaned under the taskmasters, we sang as we started our new life.
There is no family that does not have its own historical memory of countless later events, no family that has not had its own experiences, no family that does not have a tale to tell.
Once upon a time our children were too impatient to have time for their grandparents’ and parents’ memories, but we now live in a new generation when history is an intrinsic part of self-identity.
So a suggestion – as you sit at Seder, chat with the people you know about their own personal memories; create your own individual Pesach at a date that links with your own story, and re-live the events that made you what you are.
