R.P. BenDedek
Passover Principles of the USA
By R.P. BenDedek
Apr 4, 2010 - 12:15:18 AM

Easter for the Christian, celebrates the victory of Jesus of Nazareth, "The Messiah", over death. Passover for the Jew, celebrates the 'passing over' of the Angel of Death from those households upon whose doors was painted the blood of the sacrificial lamb.

Both festivals celebrate atonement for sin, and escape from the coming judgment of death upon "the people" of the land.

But over and above these concepts, these festivals celebrate 'liberty'. Liberty from the physical and spiritual taskmasters that have kept us in bondage; servants unto captivity and death. With the resurrection of Jesus for the Christian, and the escape from Egypt for the Jew, there comes hope that one might be lead into the promised land of blessing and favor of the Almighty.

What a strange thing it is therefore, that in the land of 'Liberty' and 'Freedom' - The United States of America - that so many people despise their Judeo-Christian religious heritage and culture.

The underlying principles of Christianity and Judaism, is service to God, service to the community, right doing in all your ways, loving your neighbor (Jesus got that from the Old Testament), looking after the widows and orphans, feeding the hungry, setting free from darkness those in captivity, and self identity as a member of a chosen race of people.

The very foundations of American History are these very things are they not?

However time, corruption and history may have caused many in the past 2000 years to wander away from these Spiritual truths, in the last 500 years there has been a resurgence of their values, to the point, that the United States of America became the 'beacon' of light in a dark world. This superpower was founded on Judeo-Christian principles of recognizing and worshipping 'God', freedom from unjust oppression, justice and equality for all, and prosperity achieved by the work of one's hands, in a land full of promise.

The first commandment whether you are a Jew or a Christian, is that there is only one God, and that you shall not put other gods before you, and yet, not only do people today put other gods before them, but many are doing their best - via the law of the land - to remove GOD himself, not just from public view and recognition, but from the mouths and consciousness of the people.

The USA is hardly a perfect society. It is not always just; not always rich; not always innocent; not always free; and not always at peace. But it is a society founded on 'Passover' principles.

"Why is this day different from all others?" a son will ask his father at Passover. In the asking of the question and the telling of the answer, the child is instructed in the history of his people.

When your child asks: "Why is this nation (the USA) different from all others?" What answer will you give?

Will you say: "Because we are rich? Because we are militarily strong? We have never been conquered? We are politically different?"

Or will you say, that this nation was founded on, and grounded in the 'Divine' principles. That this land for all its failures, puts the welfare of the majority before the whims of the minority; the best interest of the common man ahead of the self-centered privileged classes.

Will you tell your children that this land is blessed, because it gave to all men the right to hold their heads high with dignity as they adhered to their various faiths, and refused to allow one faith to rule over, or disqualify all others.

And when the day comes that the 'Divine' principles of the USA are disqualified as so much superstitious nonsense, and are replaced by a secular and humanistic society like those of the various communist / socialist countries that have arisen in the last century, and the children ask: 'Why is this country no different from all others?', will you answer honestly and say:

"Because I was Stupid!"

R.P. BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com

• Baal-Shem asked of Rabbi Nahman of Horodenko "Do you know who revoked the heavenly decree that would have let loose a catastrophe on our people? I will tell you. Our litanies, our fasts had no effect.
  
  It was a woman, a common woman, who saved us. See how it happened.
  
  She went to the synagogue and began weeping and praying: "Master of the universe, are you not our father? Why do you not hear your children when they cry to you? Look at me; I am a mother, I have five children. And when they shed on tear, my heart is broken. But you, Father, have so many more. All men are your children. And they all cry, and cry. Even if your heart is of stone, how can you be insensible to it?"
  
  "And God" - concluded the Besht, "decided in her favor."

R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www kingscalendar com), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he is currently living in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China.

BenDedek Social Commentaries at Magic City

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.