I am a Jew and a rabbi. For me Jesus is more cousin than Christ, more rabbi than redeemer. Yet my understanding of Judaism would be so much less without his insights into its deepest truths. So, too, I think, is a Christian’s understanding of Christianity made greater through a grounding in Judaism. This sharing of insights is all the more powerful at Passover/Easter time.
For both Jews and Christians Passover is a symbol of God’s liberating power. We are all enslaved to something, and the God of the Passover is the Power that calls us to liberation, and which makes liberation possible.
When, for example, Jews spend Passover week avoiding chumetz, products containing leaven which was originally made of soured dough, we are symbolically freeing ourselves from the sourness we bring to our life and the lives of others through our enslavement to ego and other false gods. Avoiding chumetz may be the root of abstinence during Lent.
As Jews mourn the death of Pharoah’s first born (and the first born of all Egypt) during our seder meal by diminishing the wine in our glasses so as not to “toast” to the suffering of others, Christians may see the death of the first born as foreshadowing the death of God’s first born through which liberation is offered to all humankind.
When the seder meal calls us to break the middle of the three matzot (plural of matzah, the flat bread eaten by Jews at Passover, and Jesus and the Apostles at the Last Supper), the Jew sees in these three breads the unity of God (the top matzah), the unity of nature (the bottom matzah), and the brokenness of the human being (the middle matzah) who feels estranged from both. Christians, on the other hand, might see these three matzot as Father, Son (broken on the Cross), and Holy Ghost.
Exploring these different meanings offers Jews and Christians an opportunity to explore their respective faiths and the faith of their neighbors through shared metaphor.
Because of this I am pleased that many Christians and Christian churches have taken to holding their own Passover meals during Holy Week. I often lead such meals in churches, and have even co-authored a Hagaddah (Passover liturgy) called Let Us Break Bread Together to help those Christians who wish to celebrate Passover do so in a manner that honors its Jewish roots even as it celebrates its Christian branches.
Some of my rabbinic colleagues are furious with me for writing such a book. They see Let Us Break Bread Together as an act of betrayal, somehow giving away the heart of Judaism. I disagree. Throughout history religions have borrowed from one another. I am not afraid of borrowing. I am afraid of hording.
I believe the hallmark of the 21st century will be a deep and deeply spiritual conversation among the religions of the world. Judaism and Christianity can be at the forefront of this effort, and can model a sacred exchange that far surpasses our current level of inter-religious dialogue. Passover/Easter can be the catalyst for this conversation.
Rabbi Rami Shapiro
Author (with Rev. Michael Smith) of “Let Us Break Bread Together,” Paraclete Press.
