Pesach/Passover: a yearly reminder

It’s been a number of years now since I became cognizant of the difference between Gentile and Jew, the difference in our roles and responsibilities. And over those years, the difference, the distinction, has been solidified and reinforced. That is not to say that peoples of the world can’t communicate with one another, that Gentiles and Jews can’t conversate and get along. But when God gave the covenant at Sinai, forever separating Israel from the other nations of the world, he made it plain that there are distinguishing marks that set Israel apart, things that were for Israel alone. They had certain stringencies and rewards that the nations didn’t have. And the nations had freedoms and pleasures that the Israelites were forbidden. Like in a business, people of different ranks and responsibilities get different hours and different paygrades, though they all work in the same business.

Every year, the Jewish festival (yes, Jewish) of Pesach or “Passover” comes around and the Torah-faithful amongst them prepare. They will do what their tradition enjoins them to do as they partake in their week-long ceremony that marks a momentous occasion in their history that survives millennia afterwards. Each year it should be impressed upon them the miracle God wrought for their fathers, their ancestors, delivering them from Egypt, and, specifically, it should be done actively in their performance of the divinely-commanded appointed time.

As a Gentile, a person who is not of Israel, I can see that and be reminded of God’s power in history further establishing the fact that he is the ultimate and independent reality, the essential reality, and nature and creation are dependant, accidental, incidental, nonessential.

[Aside: I laugh to myself about those who raise the laws of nature so high that God must work within them (or even that they can work independently). Yes, I’m talking about those marrying the naturalistic fantasies of big bang and molecule-to-man evolution with Torah, or who think “Science” (translate as “the consensus of some idolised people”) to be so true that God must work according to the tentative models/stories of men. It’s better be blunt at times than to beat around the issue.]

But Passover also teaches me that I’m not a Jew. I’m not an Israelite. My fathers were not rescued from Mitzrayim or “Egypt” by God and taken to Sinai to establish a segregating national covenant. The command to perform the rites and festival was not given to my ancestors and enjoined upon me. That’s their history, not mine. So those days special to them are, in my day-to-day living, nothing to me. Again, I’m being blunt. For the vast majority of that time of Pesach and Matsos, Passover and Unleavened Bread, it’ll be life as usual for me where I’ll hardly pay any mind to it. And that’s ok. Actually, it’s more than ok, it is absolutely fine! There are many times when a Gentile should get on with his or her Gentile business whilst the Jew (who is actually faithful to his covenant) gets on with his or her Jewish business and never the twain should meet! When a Gentile gets too invested in Jewish affairs, or a Jew acts like a Gentile, that’s when trouble starts.

So this is me, once again, reaffirming a truth that I’m secure in.