Holy Week and Passover coincide in 2025, and Father Dave welcomes back Rabbi Brad Hirschfield to discuss this meaningful time of year.
Rabbi Brad reflects on how we can be grateful for God’s blessings while also feeling frustrated at the state of our world. “They can both be true at the same time. I’m allowed to wake up in the morning and say, ‘Dear Lord, what are you doing? Why is it like this? What do you want me to believe in at this point? It’s getting really challenging,’” he says. “But then also, I have a cup of coffee with my wife, check in with my kids, see pictures of my grandchildren, and say, ‘Thank you God, because you have blessed me in ways that I never thought were possible.’”
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He discusses how we can all relate to the story of Passover. “The Exodus story from Egypt is kind of a paradigm for all liberation,” Rabbi Brad says, and he notes a different translation for this region. “[Israelites] would have known [Egypt] as ‘Mitzrayim’ in Hebrew. The root of that word is ‘a tight spot.’. …I really believe Passover is for everybody, because everyone finds themselves at one time or another in a tight spot, and they turn to God and their loved ones and say, ‘I hope we can pass over from this tight spot, from this Egypt, into a new promised land.’”
Father Dave reflects on how the Jewish people commemorate Passover and how it relates to Catholicism. He says, “I think the ritual is even richer that you all continue to celebrate to this day, which is making God present in the current moment, not just remembering.” Rabbi Brad responds, “We are literally joining ourselves to each other and to the presence of God’s salvation.”
“It’s not just the story of celebrating [the Israelites] being liberated; they dared to celebrate the Exodus while they were still enslaved. They dared to celebrate liberation before they had been liberated,” he continues. “We believe that there is more in store for us than our current physical circumstances, and that once you live that — not just believe it — but live into it, you can wake up in a new day where it’s actually true.”
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Rabbi Brad discusses the Passover Seder, which also translates to “order” in Hebrew. “It’s literally celebrating order under completely disordered circumstances,” he says. “It’s not when everything is calm and feels well ordered, then I’ll celebrate. It’s the reverse; I’m going to celebrate the order, the faith, the love, the hope, and the promises that I believe in most — not when they’re fulfilled — but as a partner and an agent of their fulfillment.”
“Celebrate the going out before you have gone out,” Rabbi Brad says. “Celebrate life, even when you feel kind of dead inside. Celebrate hope, even when you feel hopeless. And guess what: you may find more life and hope than you imagined was possible.”
