Freedom through Suffering

The original Korech sandwich prepared on Passover included the Paschal lamb, Matzah and Maror. Rabbi Heschel Greenberg comments, “The fact that the Matzah of joyous freedom and the Maror of bitter slavery are combined poses a conceptual problem. How can one express both the joy of freedom and the bitterness of slavery simultaneously? The answer is that normally it is impossible…. But on the first night of Passover, we transcend the system [of conventional forces] and simultaneously feel the joy of freedom and the bitterness of the lack of freedom; we integrate the two.”

If I take the story of Exodus and apply it to my own life, I know that my experience of freedom is in contrast to my suffering (the pain of the behaviors and mindsets that enslave me). The miracle, as I’ve found, is that my experience of freedom comes through my suffering, when I turn towards it and embrace it with love, compassion, and understanding. It is in this moment where both meet. I am held in a transcendent place where there is still pain, but also love—the love of God, the love I have for myself, and the love my pain has for me. We become One there, as it always is, but which is felt most in this unification. And gradually the pain subsides, enslavement falls away, and I am only freedom, held in love.

And so by this I can say, the Korech sandwich that is both sweet and bitter does exist, is possible, is the path to freedom. Perhaps one cannot know freedom unless one has been enslaved; cannot know God unless one has felt without God; cannot know love unless one has felt abandoned by it. That we are shown a path of returning and coming home is our blessing. Amen.

Greenberg, H. (2023) KOREICH – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 11). https://rabbigreenberg.com/read/holidays/koreich-15-steps-of-the-seder-part-11/