Mark Gerson on How the Seder Teaches Freedom Through Food
The Tikvah Podcast
Tikvah
4.6 • 620 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2021
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In almost a week, Jews all over the world will sit down at their seder tables and retell the story of the Exodus, of the Jewish people’s national deliverance from Egypt. Of course, in the seder Jews retell that story in a highly choreographed, highly ritualized ceremonial meal. Particular food items are used for particular purposes, and carefully delineated instructions are given for what to do with each. Why do Jews celebrate national deliverance by eating and drinking at all? How does food, of all things, illuminate freedom?
To help us understand the significance of food and drink on Passover, in this week’s podcast the entrepreneur and philanthropist Mark Gerson joins Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver. Gerson is the author of a new book, The Telling: How Judaism’s Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life, a commentary on the Passover Haggadah. In this episode, he analyzes the many foods prescribed by the Haggadah, and how each of them in their own way gets at the heart of Jewish national freedom.
Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In just a few days, Jews all over the world will sit down at their satyr tables |
| 0:12.0 | and retell the story of national deliverance from Egypt by God's strong hand and outstretched |
| 0:17.6 | arm. And of course, the way that we retell that story is embedded in a highly |
| 0:22.9 | choreographed, highly ritualized ceremonial meal. Particular food items are specified, and carefully |
| 0:29.2 | delineated instructions are given for what to do with them. But why do we celebrate national |
| 0:34.5 | deliverance by eating and drinking at all? How does food illuminate freedom? |
| 0:39.3 | Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. To help us penetrate the significance |
| 0:45.7 | of food and drink at Passover, I'm joined today by Mark Gerson, entrepreneur, philanthropist, |
| 0:51.3 | host of the podcast, the rabbi's husband, and author of a new book, The Telling, |
| 0:56.2 | how Judaism's essential book reveals the meaning of life, a commentary on the Passover |
| 1:00.9 | Hagata. |
| 1:01.5 | If you enjoy this conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, |
| 1:07.0 | Google Play, and Spotify. |
| 1:08.4 | I hope you'll leave us a five-star review to help us grow this |
| 1:11.5 | community of ideas. I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes at |
| 1:16.4 | podcast at tikfafund.org. And of course, if you want to learn more about our work at Tikva, |
| 1:21.6 | you can visit our website, tikfafunds.org, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Here now is my conversation with Mark Gerson. |
| 1:29.4 | Mark Gerson, welcome to the Tickfah podcast. |
| 1:31.7 | Jonathan, it is so good to be here with you. Thank you. |
| 1:33.9 | First of all, congratulations on the publication of the telling. |
| 1:36.8 | Thank you. |
| 1:37.4 | Why don't you just tell our listeners about the book, why you wrote it, and what they can |
... |
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