The Sea Never Parted for Black Folks in America

Y’all, I LOVE Passover. I know, I know, we’re all eating bread again (except for those, like me who don’t partake). But as fellow Black Jewish leader Michael Twitty advises, “Just as some say keep the Christmas spirit year round and keep it in your heart,  for us, the equivalent would be Pesach. The joy of being free but the acknowledgement that other people are not free and we need to help make them free.” Even this week, we commemorated those who were not free and tragically perished in the Shoah. 

Just like Twitty, I’ve had my own recent epiphany about Pesach. While the narratives between Jews and Black folks enslaved in American chattel slavery have often been compared, there is a crucial difference. For Black folks in America, the sea never parted. They were never able to escape their enslavers and oppressors nor the systems of enslavement and oppression that have held them hostage.  So this year, as we move out of the Pesach season, I think that it is important to acknowledge this reality in our work and in future Seders until freedom is actually achieved for all people, and especially for Black, Indigenous, and other folks of the Global Majority. Until slavery and it’s offspring have been uprooted in America, none of us are free.

And if we get really clear and honest about the fact that, for many Black folks and other People of Color in America, the sea never parted and they remain in Mitzrayim, in narrow, oppressive space(s), then we have the capacity to heal and move closer to our collective liberation, what might be the true Messianic Age. It’s on us to keep learning and taking action that will liberate us all, and I'm thrilled that we have a plethora of resources to support us on the way. One that Tracie and I recently created on our podcast, Jews Talk Racial Justice, is 8 Passover-Inspired Practices for Liberation. These practices will help us to embody the spirit and strength of Pesach as we move into the rest of the year.

We offer this resource now, in this season of counting the Omer, the seven-week period until Shavuot and the Revelation of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. As we move from Liberation to Revelation we take moments out of our day to find awareness and gratitude in the now, to help us cultivate a mindset ready for Revelation. We hope that you listen to our podcast to learn how our 8 Passover-Inspired Practices for Liberation can offer some gems for you to consider as you continue the ongoing (and circuitous!) journey out of the narrow places through the wilderness toward the promised land of collective liberation.