Harry's Video Blog - The Skeleton In Our Closet: Passover

anyone who's ever been to a Passover seder knows that long before Wilt Chamberlain ever received his nickname the Jewish people were the original big Dippers we dip a number of times during the Seder the first time is right at the outset during the ceremony of carpos when we take a vegetable and we dunk it into saltwater some commentators say that the reason is that the saltwater is supposed to remind us of the bitter tears that our ancestor cried during the slavery in Egypt tears that went up to heaven and aroused God's mercy other commentators say that the salt water represents something very different blood but not the blood you would guess what we're remembering is that tragic incident in our history when 10 of the sons of Jacob sold their brother Joseph as a slave and they took his Amazing Technicolor dream coat that they had ripped off of him dipped it in Blood and then presented it to their father as a hoax in order to deceive him into thinking that his beloved Son Joseph had been torn apart by an animal now imagine you had two brothers and when they were kids they get into a fist fight terrible and one of them slugs the other so hard that he accidentally breaks his brother's jaw surgeries wirings and that jaw ends up not straight now imagine it's years later and those two brothers are together at a Seder with their families and a young child child of the brother who threw the punch turns to his uncle and says hey Uncle Sam why is your jaw crooked you think there might be an awkward pause at that seder and so I ask you why would the rabbis Institute a custom that requires us to open the door to the closet of Jewish history and take out what may well be the largest single skeleton in the closet here's why in order to feel free we first have to remember that we were slaves and in remembering that we were slaves we have to recall what got us down to Egypt the original event that started things in motion was the brothers selling Joseph now it would be easy to just point the finger of blame at those desly Egyptians but we don't just do that we first point the finger at ourselves and take personal responsibility for our actions back then and by analogy for our actions now but as The Cat in the Hat would say that is not all oh no that is not all because think about it where are we doing this reenactment we're doing it at the Seder with our family present what better way as awkward as it is to remind ourselves that petty family jealousies or squabbles or fights or rivalries if left to Fester can EXP explode and can destroy a family and so with our family present we're meant to work on that in my line of work too often when I'm representing families who have lost the loved one I'll hear the following I didn't get a chance to say goodbye and we were in a fight I didn't get a chance to apologize life can unfortunately be unexpectedly far too short we don't want to pass up that opportunity to apologize and the longer we wait the worse it gets so let's use this Passover seder while sitting with our family members to take personal responsibility for our actions to make up with our family members to apologize to say I'm sorry to work it out to make up for the past so that we can move forward in the future and properly celebrate our freedom la [Music]