I've been thinking alot about Passover in recent years. What does it mean to be free? I think that for me, freedom means freedom from abusive and codependent relationships. It means freedom from a painful past.
I've been re-examining "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, which I started working on at your retreat, and I watched the movie. I think of how Sethe carried the inherited trauma of slavery, her own trauma, and then her own choice to kill her child, and how at the end, she is delivered and set free from the demon of false guilt that haunts her. African Americans used to use the Exodus narrative to describe their own escape from slavery.
I like the song Chad Gadya, because it reminds me of the ways in which life is like one thing after another. One bad relationship takes the place of another, one addiction will replace another, until you find yourself at the feet of the Holy One of Israel, begging for mercy. The song is supposed to represent how Israel is tossed to and fro amongst the nations. One world superpower subsumes and other and then another, until God comes back and puts an end to it all. It can be a metaphor for our own lives.
I love this, Lila! You’re so right about Chad Gadya - I never looked at it that way! May I share your comment in an upcoming newsletter?
I've been thinking alot about Passover in recent years. What does it mean to be free? I think that for me, freedom means freedom from abusive and codependent relationships. It means freedom from a painful past.
I've been re-examining "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, which I started working on at your retreat, and I watched the movie. I think of how Sethe carried the inherited trauma of slavery, her own trauma, and then her own choice to kill her child, and how at the end, she is delivered and set free from the demon of false guilt that haunts her. African Americans used to use the Exodus narrative to describe their own escape from slavery.
I like the song Chad Gadya, because it reminds me of the ways in which life is like one thing after another. One bad relationship takes the place of another, one addiction will replace another, until you find yourself at the feet of the Holy One of Israel, begging for mercy. The song is supposed to represent how Israel is tossed to and fro amongst the nations. One world superpower subsumes and other and then another, until God comes back and puts an end to it all. It can be a metaphor for our own lives.