Passover Thoughts

Passover begins tomorrow night, so I wanted to link to our Passover related posts:

1) In Every Generation noting the parallel between the statement of the eldest dwarf in The Silver Chair, "Those northern witches always mean the same thing, but in every age they have a different plan for getting it." And the declaration in the Passover haggadah, "In every generation they rise up to destroy us, and the Holy One Blessed be He, delivers us from their hands." 

2) Calormen Poetry: Questions contrasting the Calormen and Jewish approach to questions

3) Pre-Commemorating Christmas How Tumnus "pre-celebration" of Christmas echoes our Sages understanding of Abraham's pre-celebration of Passover.

I'll also take a moment to expand on the last of these posts. R' Gavriel Ze'ev Margolis in his haggadah called Agudat Aizov, comments as follows on the song, "Who Knows One?" This song, he asserts, is appropriate for the second half of the seder as it is a song that will be sung in the holy city of Jerusalem after the final redemption when the Jews have settled peacefully in their land. At that time, they will look back on the exile and sing of the ideals that supported them through their trials and tribulations as enumerated in this song. 

The future redemption, he continues, is the major theme of the second half of the seder, when the Exodus from Egypt is not even mentioned. It is as if, to embellish of R' Margolis' points, we are pre-celebrating the final exodus which has yet to come. We sing a song appropriately sung only after the final exodus has come to fruition. We look back on an exile of which we are still in its midst. But on Passover that's doable. For just as during the first half of the seder to relive the Exodus from Egypt, during the second half we 'pre-live' the exodus that we still pray for today.    

In Every Generation...

Those Northern Witches always mean the same thing, but in every age they have a different plan for getting it. (The Silver Chair) 

In every generation they rise up to destroy us, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, saves us from their hands. (Passover Haggadah)

I have no idea whether or not C.S. Lewis was at all familiar with the details of the Passover seder, the ritual meal Jews partake in on the first night of Passover. At this meal, Jews celebrate and relive the Exodus from Egypt. The seder (Hebrew for 'order') ritual is laid out in the haggadah (Hebrew for 'tale') which presents the order of what is done at the meal. This includes the when to read the various texts about the Exodus, when to drink the four cups of wine, when to eat matza (the unleavened bread of affliction) and marror (the bitter herbs), and so on. 

Whether or not C.S. Lewis was familiar with the details of the seder, his description of the Northern Witches’ endless quest to rule over Narnia exactly echoes the haggadah’s assertion that evil will always attempt ultimate destruction of the Jewish people. Let us take a moment to understand the statement made by the oldest dwarf to Rilian, soon to be the young King of Narnia, in light of the statement in the haggadah, and vice-versa. 

In the haggadah, the assertion that evil will arise in every generation parallels a similar statement, “In every generation one is required to see themselves as if they left Egypt.” What does this mean? On the seder night, the night dedicated towards enmeshing and weaving Jewish youth into the tapestry of the Jewish people, time is put on hold. The myriad of threats, enemies, and evil that endanger Jews today, and have endangered them over the millennia, all become one with Pharaoh and his minions. Pogroms, inquisitions, and concentration camps all meld into an ongoing story of evil seeking to destroy the Jewish people. But no matter what form or shape evil takes, God will never allow it to triumph. Just as God emerged victorious in His battle against the Egyptians, He will also emerge victorious in the war against the current evil. 

This same lesson is that given to Prince Rilian. The prince spent ten years living in darkness. As Puddleglum worries, “Constitution ruined with living underground, I shouldn't wonder,” and this concern is certainly valid. How can someone recover from that experience? How can such a person see light without wincing? 

The oldest dwarf understood this challenge and devised a solution. It is the oldest dwarf who fits the Lewis' previous description as one who, “could just remember how his father, King Caspian, had looked when he was a young man, and saw the likeness.” And in this observation found a way to fully redeem the prince. The assertion that all Northern Witches mean the same thing takes Rilian back in time and demonstrates that he is part of a chain. His experience is only the latest battle in an ongoing war against evil. And just like Caspian and even Peter, with the help of Aslan, could overcome tremendous odds to defeat evil, so too Rilian can escape the trauma of his experience and emerge to rule justly and righteously. Times have not changed, the story is still the same, only a few irrelevant details of the plot have been rewritten. 

The oldest dwarf also has something to teach the Jewish People. What is the common denominator of the Northern Witches (of which we only know two, the White Witch and the Lady of the Green Kirtle)? What characteristics do they share that they embody God's warning to Jeremiah, “From the North the evil will come forth” (Jeremiah 1:14)? Both witches deny the true God, and see themselves in His place. Any being that believes itself divine must conquer Narnia to demonstrate its power over Aslan. Any people or ideology, be it Communism, Nazism, or even humanism, that sees itself in place of God, must attack or erode the Jewish People to demonstrate they are not merely a cheap substitute. The war is ongoing. Each battle is the same, only the means of attack have changed. But, no matter the strategy, God will emerge victorious. 

Stay safe everyone! I’m back to blogging so come back soon!