What Plagues Us, What Liberates Us?
Shabbat Vayikra Sermon.
The first Seder was held before our ancestors left Egypt, amidst great fear and uncertainty, surrounded by human suffering. This year, too, we’re more aware than before of our vulnerability, of the preciousness and precariousness of life. And we’ll find a way to celebrate anyway. Two plagues—the 9th and 10th (darkness and the death of the firstborn)– give voice to what’s being taken from us and what’s given to us today as we work to rediscover hope in this profoundly disorienting moment.