Well, it has been quite a week! We met our incoming Executive Vice President, Dr. Norman Beauchamp Jr., and learned a bit about his exciting plans for the future of our medical center. Plus, the notice of grant award for the competitive renewal of our CCSG is imminent as well.
Harriet and I headed off to the beach this past weekend to get a head start on our family’s observance of Passover, which formally begins on Monday evening. We’ll be with our DC contingent on Tuesday, and our Ellicott City branch is up in Boston with Ben’s family this week. We were joined on Saturday by our kids and grandkids from Philadelphia for an early Seder, where we tell the story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, led by Moses. It is a powerful story; its many layers remind us of the degrading nature of enslavement and the yearnings of all people to have freedom and dignity. The actual telling of the story can be tiresome for the little ones, so we mixed things up a bit this year. The actual reading of the Seder was abbreviated (but the traditional meal was not!), and we then sat down to watch the movie “The Ten Commandments,” released in the 1950s, starring Charlton Heston as Moses.
Now, I am a sucker for classic flicks, but this movie is impossibly cheesy, with a script composed of slogans rather than actual human dialogue. The special effects are not so special by today’s standards. But, what an experience! Everyone loved all three hours and 40 Technicolor minutes of it — even our 6-year-old granddaughter, Isabelle. I think the grandkids learned more about the Exodus than any Seder could have possibly taught them. Go figure; we have a new holiday tradition.
What’s not so new is that the story of the Exodus describes a seemingly intractable conflict in what might loosely be called the Middle East. You’d think we humans might have learned something in the roughly 3,400 years that have elapsed since those events, which we still recount to this day. Perhaps not, but hope springs eternal.
Since the time of the first Seders, Jews around the world have ended their Passover Seders with a prayer that ends with “Next Year in Jerusalem!” For most of us, this is not a statement of specific geographic intent, but rather expresses our hopes for freedom and a just peace for all peoples. That seems like an especially appropriate wish in these troubled times.
Make the world a better place this week.
Lou
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