Connecting Four Dots for Pesach (Acharei Mot 5774)

Preparing for Pesach, which begins next week, the pattern of fours is on many minds -- the Four Questions, the Four Children, the Four Cups of Wine.  The festival even has four different names.  Here's a different list of four -- think a moment about what links them:  

1. Walt Disney
2. A 9 year old from northern California
3. The week's Torah portion
4. Pesach

LisaKristine.com photo that inspired Vivienne

A few words about each of these four dots before we connect them:  

• Walt Disney said, “If you dream it, you can do it.”

• The 9-year old is Vivienne Harr who raised more than $100,000 for a worthy cause selling lemonade.

• The Torah portion identifies a long list of prohibited relationships -- intimate associations we should avoid.  Some are on the list because they are icky or wrong. One prohibition -- against associating with idol worshipers (Leviticus 18:21) -- seems to make the list because Torah fears we might become just like those with whom we hang out.  

• Pesach is a celebration of the struggle for freedom at once ancient and immediate.

Vivienne Harr actually starts to connect the dots for us.  She is the girl who raised more than $100,000 toward ending child slavery.  
She did it selling lemonade. Let’s learn from her TED talk (she begins speaking at about 3:00 minutes):   

She is just one person -- there is power in her story of singularity.  She says, "it's not how big we are, it's about how big we think we can change the world."  Vivienne dreams big about changing the world.  And she acts big by including others in working to pursue her dream.  Vivienne echoes Disney:  "If you dream it, you can do it."  

Vivienne starts with a big dream of freedom. She has the resilience to pursue that dream outdoors through every season of the year.  What she accomplished, though -- selling lemonade; writing a book, "Make a Stand: When Life Gives You Lemons, Change the World; and more -- she accomplished through community.  She is fulfilling her dreams by associating with those who share her dream and her resilience.  That association strengthens her.      

Vivienne's words about seeing herself and her brother in pictures of other children who are enslaved echoes with the lesson of Pesach that each of us today is to imagine having been a slave in ancient Egypt. The long remembrance that we were strangers, vulnerable, enslaved  comes to inspire us to pursue dignity for anyone and freedom for everyone.  

Some of us today are enslaved by our habits and others are enslaved by our temptations.  Some by relationships that are unhealthy and others enslaved by economic distress.  We need an energized community to help liberate us. A community inspired by people like Vivienne.  Remember, "it's not how big we are, it's about how big we think we can change the world."  

May your Pesach be filled with big dreams, the courage to pursue them with others, and an end to slavery everywhere.