Thursday of Lent V - Ritual
On Passover Eve, Jewish custom advocates searching for old bread crumbs scattered in the crevices of the kitchen pantry, then tossing them into a paper sack and even burning them the next morning as a tangible display of springtime new beginnings. If, then, you find your life polluted by relationships going bad, toss out the anger that you bring to the table of life, the way you would last year’s stale bread crumbs. Try actually writing down the habits that harm you and your family and literally burning them, the way Jews burn old bread crumbs, as your spiritual house cleaning this Easter.
Then later, as Easter Sunday brings you the Good News of Christian tradition, reflect on the fact that Jesus and his disciples once kept a Passover Seder , at which time they would have pondered the Seder’s liturgical question: “Why is this night different from all other nights?” With the Easter Vigil just behind you, you might look at the faces of those you love, and know why this time is different. It will be the absence of destructive behavior patterns that you burned as the leaven of your soul. And you will look into the eyes of the people you love, recognizing that you have left your own Egyptian bondage far behind.
Laurence A. Hoffman is an American Reform rabbi and a prominent scholar of Jewish liturgy. He is known for his liberal religious views. Hoffman is a Professor of Liturgy at Hebrew Union College in New York City. He is a prolific author, with two separate books to his name that are used as liturgical guides. His writing examines means of improving the quality of praying for secular Jews. He has explored issues of liturgical change, but is most interested in the "community at prayer"—human and divine relationships in prayer.
