Rabbi Daniel Siegel

The words of the Prophets are written on the subway walls, tenement halls

As we began to contemplate Pesach, the Festival of our Freedom, our Year 9 students gathered at the St John’s Anglican Church at 120 Darlinghurst Street. There they met staff of Kids Giving Back, who helped facilitate our meeting and coming to know individuals who were homeless, rather than homeless individuals, as they reiterated to us.Together, we were to gain a better sense of the world these individuals experience on a daily basis.

Significantly, while we were at the Church, we never entered it. Yet, we, and the volunteers reaching out to the marginalised of our society, were very much doing ‘God’s work’.

In walking the streets of Kings Cross, our students gathered at a mural that graced the wall of Rough Edges, which describes itself as “a place where community happens for people experiencing homelessness and marginalisation. No matter who you are, you will belong here”. It was here that, Andrew, who for many years called the streets his home, shared the importance of community in recognising him and those living on the streets with him, as an individual, like everyone else, experiencing a life and journey to be valued and recognised.

As Andrew spoke to our students, I noticed that there appeared on the wall, behind them, a hand-painted sign that read “humanity=freedom”. Upon returning to Emanuel, I shared a photo of the sign with our students and we discussed how one stripped of his/her humanity might be deprived of a feeling of freedom. We considered, as well, that we begin our Pesach seder with the words “all who are hungry, come and eat. All who are in need come and be sustained with us”.

Recognising the humanity of others we realise our own humanity, working for the freedom of others we more fully experience our own freedom.

As we prepare for this year’s Pesach as Zeman Cheiruteinu, the Time of our Freedom, may we strive to reach out to the homeless, hungry and marginalised of our community, by inviting those in need to our seder, volunteering at a homeless shelter and/or a soup kitchen. The words of our Haggadah speak to us all “Today we are enslaved, in the new year that we bring in, we shall be free”.

Our Pesach seder reminds us that we are to experience and effect God’s service and presence beyond the church and synagogue. I hope you find the following article of meaning to read before or share during your family seder: The Rabbi and His Church.

www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/281444/the-rabbi-and-his-church