From Bitterness to Blessing: The Lesson of the Seder

He puts us in Egypt, going to take us out of Egypt, and we're thanking him. This seems to be a conflict unfolding in the Passover Seder. On the one hand, we're expressing the pain and bitterness of slavery. We're experiencing it by eating the poor man's bread. The salt water reminds us of the tears. The bitter herbs remind us of hundreds of years of bitterness in a foreign land. But then, we do all these sorts of things. We engage in showing that we're free now. That we recline. We're dipping. Well, that's the kind of thing that rich men do. Well, which is it? What's going on in the Passover Seder? Why are we thanking God for all of this? In Jewish thought, a person can't possibly appreciate freedom unless he first endures vicissitudes. As it turns out, the Jewish people could have never appreciated the freedom unless we first endured the slavery. Go through the bitterness first. Eat the poor man's bread first. And only then you can recline and understand the freedom we now possess. Happy Passover.