Bitter is the first taste of freedom
I didn’t know how much I liked horseradish until my first seder meal.
I eat it on the matzah. I eat it with the charoset. I eat it with the lamb. I can’t get enough.
What’s interesting, because pretty much the only other time I use horseradish is in my Bloody Mary’s. I enjoy the flavor, but I don’t seek it out.
At a seder, horseradish is my favorite thing on the plate.
I wonder if it has to do with the story we remember through the meal. Ever since studying Exodus 15:22-27 for the first time, I have been moved by its ideas.
After singing a song in their initial euphoria of being saved, the children of Israel quickly encounter something very different: marah, bitter. According to verse 23, they cannot drink the waters of Marah because they were bitter. Not it- they. The Hebrew seems to imply what is going on here is less about the water and more about the people.
Why bitter? Shouldn’t freedom taste sweet?
I love the invitation this passage gives into the human experience of change. It is only once we are free from whatever holds us tightly in the Narrow Place (Mitzrayim, the Hebrew word for Egypt), that we have the space to feel. It is only once we are through the worst of the trauma that we can process our experiences.
At Marah, we can finally wonder where God was for all those years. At Marah, we can process what we are losing as we move forward into something new. At Marah, we can be honest about how vulnerable it feels to try to trust again. At Marah, we can face the hard truths about what happened to us.
At a seder, we eat the horseradish, remember this narrative, and find room to face the full truth of our experiences. There’s something uniquely powerful about combining the Bible, poetry, food, and community.
The seder invites us to wonder what freedom God might be inviting us to taste, bitterness and all.
-Steph
Please join 40 Orchards for our Seder Experience** on Thursday, April 9, 2020. We will have conversation about Scripture, in the way of 40 Orchards, but around tables, and in the context of this powerful and important symbolic meal. It is during Passover, on Maundy Thursday, as a way to help us honor the story of the past and the ancestry of faith. It is communal so we can continue to hear one another’s voices and expand each other’s experience of what is sacred, whole, and good.
We hope to see you there.
- Lisa & Steph
**We want to be thoughtful about the possibility of cancellations due to illness or risk of illness in the current climate. In response, we are offering the tickets in 2 parts. The first payment of $25 is due at the time of ticket purchase and the second part of $20 is due at the door. We are unable to offer refunds of the $25, but will convert it to a donation if you are unable to attend or we are asked to cancel. As always, we also don’t want cost to be the factor that keeps you from coming. If you need a financial adjustment, or have any other questions or concerns, please just let us know. **
Image credit: Photo by Phil Goodwin on Unsplash