Today marks the first day of Pesach ("Passover" to you goyim), a Jewish holiday celebrating the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, ending 400 years of slavery. On a day when my family and I come together to recognize both the struggles we face and the freedoms we have as Jews, it is essential to recognize the oppression and enslavement of people all over the world. An enslavement by patriarchal traditions that oppress and degrade, the rarity of breaking free, and the consequences to those who do.
An enslavement by fear, when desperate times and forced ignorance lead to desperate, painfully ignorant measures.
And and enslavement by a culture in which every woman must be encased in silicone to become her true self, a bondage that seems so appealing that children willfully enter the shackles.
A Passover tradition is to speak of four different son (wise, wicked, simple, and the one who does not know how to ask) and the dialogues they engage in about Passover: "And the one who does not know how to ask, you start for him, as the Torah says: "And you should tell your son on that day, saying 'It is for the sake of this that Hashem did for me when I left Egypt.'"
Please initiate meaningful dialogues about slavery with the sons who cannot ask and do not know.
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