The Passover ExperienceSample

The Bitter with the Sweet

The way we celebrate Passover today is not how it was originally commemorated. When the Temple stood, the main focus of Passover was the offering which was brought in remembrance of the original sacrifice made on the eve of Passover.

As you may recall, God commanded the children of Israel to sacrifice an unblemished lamb, place its blood on the doorframes of their homes, and then "eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast" (Exodus 12:8).

In Temple times, the nation of Israel would eat the Passover offering in the same way. Today, we observe a modified version of this ritual. On Passover night, we eat bitter herbs together with matzah, bread without yeast.

The Jewish sages point out that the bitter herbs and the matzah represent two opposite ideas. The bitter herbs represent slavery; matzah symbolizes redemption -- it was the bread that didn't have time to rise when salvation came in the blink of an eye.

Today, we add another element to the bitter herb-matzah combination. We add haroset, a sweet mixture of fruit, nuts, and wine that is meant to remind us of the mortar the Israelites used for building the Egyptian cities. Haroset reminds us of bitter times, and yet, at the same time, it tastes sweet with its fruit and wine.

On Passover night, we mix the bitter and the sweet, slavery and freedom, oppression and redemption. Why? Because it is all part of one story.

In life, we tend to separate our good times and bad times. We have dry seasons and seasons of abundance. We don't like trying times in our lives, and we long for the more comfortable, blessed times. But the truth is, as we learn on Passover, it's all a blessing. The adversity in our lives is what leads us to our greatest victories.

God sends us bitter times so that we may become better people. He sends us challenges so that we might rise above them. When God told Abraham that his descendants would experience slavery, God said, "Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with greater possessions" (Genesis 15:13-14). 

Friends, know today that anything that tastes bitter in your life right now is preparing you for sweet blessings in the future.