• Article published in The Jewish Page on April 14, 2022
Chief Rabbi Isaac Sacca
There are three central elements to the Passover Seder: the Passover offering, the Matzah, and the Maror. What meaning do they have and what relationship do they have with our lives?
To incorporate positive knowledge that leads to a successful and happy life, it is necessary to avoid three obstacles that block its assimilation.
The first is the lack of a healthy intellect, which predisposes to a mental amplitude to listen to ideas foreign to those previously established in our intellectual wealth. Prejudice is the basis of many of our mistakes. Who, because of his narrow-mindedness, does not have the ability to retract the lie, because he got used to it and was educated with it, no matter how much someone wants to teach him the right thing, he will never listen. Being able to open up to new ideas is a sign of intellectual maturity.
The second is the lack of morals and good qualities. Due to his arrogance and self-centeredness, a person cannot have the humility to predispose himself to listen or analyze an idea. “Who is that to come and teach me something?” thinks the arrogant man. Being willing to admit your own mistakes is the only way to improve your life.
The third is the problem of unbalanced emotions. Even with open-mindedness and good qualities, if a person is depressed he will not be able to face the scope of knowledge properly. Achieving emotional balance and knowing how to ask for help if necessary is an important step in each person’s personal growth.
Intellectual, moral and emotional vice are the three vices that prevent a person from accessing a correct life.
The offering of the Pesach lamb (which should be made if the Great Temple of Jerusalem still existed) represents the ability to break prejudices and open the mind to analysis, dialogue, study and discovery, just as the first patriarch, Abraham, did. The Hebrews believed that the lamb was a god, but by slaughtering and eating it, they managed to mitigate the belief established for centuries in their traditions, and predisposed to analyze other ideas.
The Matzah represents the moral virtues based on humility, that is, a true conception and analysis of the self, without superfluous or accessory additions. The leavened represents the exaggeration, oversizing and distortion of the human condition that leads to pride and vice. Matzah, unleavened bread, represents the antithesis of the ego: humility, the basis of moral virtues.
The Maror represents the ability to overcome a difficult moment without falling into emotional crises, remembering that there are complex moments in life that, as hard as they may be, later pass and the situation improves. That is why bitter herbs (Maror) are eaten to remember the bitterness of the pharaoh’s subjugation, and that, despite this, life continued and oppression ended.
Only after eating and making the Pesach offering did the Hebrews go free, ready to receive God’s law, the Torah, and decide whether to accept it or not. They did so without ideological prejudices or moral and emotional vices that prevented them from accessing it
