On the eve of the Passover Seder, we are commanded to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. This is a different mitzvah from that of remembering the exodus on a daily basis. Much has been written in praise of storytelling. "An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up" (Proverbs 12:25). The story -- the ability to express things, to give them words and structure -- is a tool that frees us from the oppression of our hearts and allows us self-reflection and new insight. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is known for saying: "Most of the world says that telling stories puts people to sleep; I say telling stories can wake people up from their slumber!" We usually tell stories to children at bedtime, but according to Rabbi Nachman, these stories are meant to wake adults up, not help them fall asleep. Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg explained that stories are the most efficient way to wake someone up and encourage them to do penance, especially when a person has a tendency to be "sleepy" and needs a good wake-up call. When a person listens to a story, it speaks to his or her child-like inner self, rather than to the cold and analytic adult mind. A story reaches our innermost sleepy selves and awakens our souls in a magical way. On the eve of the Passover Seder, we sit and tell our personal story: "As though you yourself came out of Egypt." We are invited to share our own authentic, updated and subjective story, which helps us begin the process of repair and kindness. Everyone tells their story and everyone listens to the personal and subjective stories that are told. The seder-time story involves yet another dimension: repairing the relationship between father and son. The relationship between a father and his son is always complex, and its very essences causes conflict: Fathers have expectations of their sons, and sons want to meet those expectations and to feel they belong to their fathers' great ancestry -- but they also feel the need to rebel against their fathers in order to form their own distinct and unique identity. A father is likely to become frustrated by the fact that his son is not following in his path as expected, and he may feel like he has failed or that he is being betrayed. On the other hand, the son wants to feel the kind of freedom that is limited by his father's expectations and disappointments. The Passover Haggadah story repairs this dynamic by creating a conversation between father and son that is based on a series of questions and answers that form a unique and personal story. Thanks to the conversation that arises from the story, the tension disappears and we reach the point where "He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 3:24). On this night, we also tell the story of the Divine Presence and we have a conversation that draws us closer to God. Rabbi Ohad Taharlev is the head of Midreshet Lindenbaum in Israel and a member of the Beit Hillel rabbinical organization.
