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A Further Perspective
The Ways of the Parting
The last night of Passover comes at an opportune time.
If Duke plays against Butler on the last night of Passover, who must win? Clearly Butler, throwing off the bonds of servitude and marching off into freedom. That is a whit of whimsy, a scent of sentiment, falling far short of an actual prediction. Still, the setup is enchanting, the great festival of liberty featuring a battle between the duke and the butler, master against servant, rolling for all the marbles.
The “first days” of Passover were last Tuesday and Wednesday, but they mostly passed over my head this year, as I was laid up with laryngitis and a series of attendant infections. Now as I stagger back to my feet after a cascade of steroids, antibiotics and whatnot, pills and gargles and swallows, I am left to enjoy the “second days,” Monday and Tuesday of this week.
Most of your less traditional types have trouble sustaining interest in the holiday all the way through the two initial major days and the four intermediate days, so these last two major days separate the men from the boys. Although the Bible does not identify a particular basis for this extra leg of the holiday, tradition says it commemorates the splitting of the Red Sea. If you calculate the days between the Jews leaving Egypt and Pharaoh deciding to chase them, it works out that the seventh day of Passover is the anniversary of the Jews making it through the sea and the Egyptians… not.
When I was a young man, a great mentor of mine explained that this is the source of a great principle about freedom. That freedom is subject to two schools of challenges, those which precede it and those which attack after it is achieved. The first days of Passover represent the victory over the forces which attempted to strangle freedom in its womb, the Egyptians who enslaved the Israelites and did everything in their power to thwart the Jewish nation from establishing itself as a sovereign entity.
The second days of Passover represent the victory over the forces of revanchism, those who seek to wrest freedom from the grip of the people who have succeeded in its attainment. Chasing after a free people, trying to bring them back, undermine their sense of independence, breaking their spirit forever, this is the particular brand of evil the Jews faced on the seventh day after departure from Egypt. Behind them came this attack, before them loomed the seemingly impassable.
Suddenly God showed them a way through the wall of water which had appeared impenetrable. (The tradition states that one great leader, Nahshon, head of the tribe of Judah, walked into the water fearlessly before it even began to part.) This is an eternal promise to those who seek freedom, to move forward without hesitation, without a tremor of heart. There may be a tremendous barrier in our way, an obstacle looking to be insuperable, but we should march forward proudly and it will part before us, my friends, I promise you it will part.
And if you can draw any analogies from this to the present political and cultural situation, who am I to interfere?
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (24) | Leave a comment
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1FreeMan| 4.5.10 @ 9:57AM
Mr. Homnick,
Thank you for the reminder that there is more to the age we live in than Obama politics. The Apostles were looking for a political savior but they got the Savior of all mankind instead. If Obama is what we suspect then he is just the latest incarnation trying to steal away the truth, kill our ability to worship and pray publicly and destroy believer's strength of faith. It's been done before. It failed then and it will fail now. No "One" can stand against the will of God.
Alan Brooks| 4.5.10 @ 1:12PM
the GOP-- not Obama-- is now the greatest enemy of conservatism, 1unfreerightwingman.
You may think you are free...
We need a third party, and we need it bad.
Margie| 4.5.10 @ 5:31PM
You may need it Alan, you can have it. All to your little old self. As long as that's as far as it goes we'll be safe. For you, it is a sure way for Obama to be re elected, that's why you promote such.
No thank you to a third party fiasco.
No more Obama!
Restore the GOP by voting for conservatives!
And, 1FreeMan has it right.
1FreeMan| 4.6.10 @ 9:21AM
Thank you margie.
Brooks: You already have your "third-wheel" party; the libritarians. That pig won't fly and neither will any other "party" you might conjur up. The ultimate stupidity of your posts these last months make me wonder if your medication is working. Please see a specialist.
Alan Brooks| 4.5.10 @ 8:10PM
"Restore the GOP by voting for conservatives!"
That's like saying bring back a woolly mammoth by gluing fur on it. The GOP died in 2004-- the year Reagan died.
Margie| 4.6.10 @ 4:35PM
No it isn't Alan. Explain the Republican wins in NJ, MA, VA. Americans are waking up to the fact that the Democrat party is utterly corrupt and and so far to the Left that there isn't any room for your average normal American. The Republican party has always been the big tent party and its platform and planks are right. Limited government, less taxes, a strong Military Defense, pro free market enterprise. That's the truth, and I'm sticking to it! The grass roots (that's us conservatives) and us voting for ONLY conservatives who run is exactly what's needed to take this country back from the Communists.
You're either on board, or else you're going to vote for Obama like you've said previously. If so~ how can you sit back and say anything about it?
KyMouse| 4.6.10 @ 4:10PM
It was the late Zola Levitt, of Zola Levitt Ministries, who first told me about the less-well known Jewish feasts that accompany Passover. They're important for understanding the Jewish roots of Christianity, and for helping our Jewish friends understand the identity of Jesus.
Jesus was crucified on Passover (as the Lamb of God), buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread (He was born in Bethlehem, "house of bread"), and resurrected on the Feast of First Fruits, as the "first fruits of those who sleep." Unfortunately, the separation between Easter and Passover on the modern calendar has made it difficult for folks to see those connections.
Zola used to say that whichever testament he read, Old or New, it was the blood of the lamb that saved him. In the Old Testament, the blood of the lamb saved his people from slavery in Egypt; in the New, the blood of the Lamb of God, when applied to the doorposts of his heart, saved him from slavery to sin.
Leah| 4.13.10 @ 8:29PM
Always love your columns, Jay. Thanks.
And everyone else - have to realize that a 3rd party will always fail and end in defeat. The GOP may not be perfect, and perhaps far from it, but they're a whole lot better than any Dem/Lib!!! In fact, there's no comparison. And the best years we've had since WWII were due to the great RWR and his policies whose effect were felt for 25 years.
fjkdsjk| 6.30.10 @ 11:10PM
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