One of the most important aspects of Passover, and particularly of the Passover Seder, is the commandment, And you shall tell your son the passing down of tradition. The story of the Exodus from Egypt and the miracle of the Israelites redemption from slavery is passed down from grandfather to father to son, and so on. Every year, as I sit at the holiday table across from my grandmother who lost her family at the hand of the cursed Nazis I am moved during the reading of the Haggadah. Despite all the pogroms weve endured and the Holocaust, it is precisely our difficult and painful history that attests more than anything to our power of survival and our continuity. We draw strength from our past, like in the prayer we recite on Passover Eve: That which protects our forefathers and ourselves for more than once our enemies rose up against us to destroy us and God, blessed be He, delivered us from their hand. One of historys greatest Jewish scholars, Nachmanides, once wrote: God, blessed be He, will not perform miracles for each and every generation. That is why He commanded us to mark what we saw in our memories, and transfer the event to our sons, and our sons to their sons, until the last generation. In other words, not every day is a holiday. Our Creator proved His might with signs and wonders that were witnessed by the entire world during those times, and now we must pass the story down from generation to generation. There is a well-known story about an elderly rabbi who was living at the home of another resident in a Jewish village. The rabbi noticed that his landlords attitude toward tradition had become increasingly dismissive. When the rabbi asked him about it, the man replied that he had gotten into an argument with a known heretic on the topic of religion and faith. He took a piece of pork out of his satchel and declared that if there really is divine supervision, and if punishment and reward really exist, then he should choke on the pork at that moment, the man said. He ate the entire piece of pork right in front of me and nothing happened to him. Then he exclaimed with laughter that he had proved that there was no divine supervision, no punishment and reward. The sight had an effect on me. The elderly rabbi did not reply. He quietly returned to his room. Several hours later, the landlords daughter returned from school with her report card in hand, happily announcing that she had excelled in math and choir. The rabbi then emerged from his room and implored her: Please sing prove to me that you can really sing and that you deserve the high mark that you received. The child was stunned, and declined to sing. You think that I will sing for every person to prove that I excel in singing? I have a report card to prove that, she said. The proud father, who couldnt help but agree with his daughter, turned to the rabbi and said, Well, shes right. What do you have to say about that- The rabbi smiled and said, After hearing what your wise daughter said, all you have to do is apply it to the incident with the heretic and the pork. The rabbi explained that our Creator had already proved to the entire world that He watches over it, and performed miracles during the Exodus from Egypt. And indeed, we have a report card that attests to it the Torah that He gave to Israel. Is it logical to expect that God will have to prove the feats of Genesis to every person individually as evidence that He exists? Anyone who wants to know God can refer to the feats witnessed by the world during the Exodus, during the time of Esther and Mordechai, in the miracle of the Hasmoneans and in the history of every Jewish holiday. All these are documented in the eternal report card. There is no historical era during which the Jews didnt face struggles, oppression or catastrophe. Our faith guides us and the passing down of tradition from father to son and from mother to daughter is the foundation of our existence as an eternal people. On Passover Eve, when we gather with our families, we will recount the story of the Exodus from Egypt, just as our parents did and their parents before them. But more importantly, we will be instilling in our children the knowledge that miracles performed for our people in the past should strengthen us in the face of difficult challenges today.
