blogs/brentspodek

The small Salvadoran village of Ciudad Romero has a small church at its center, and the walls of this church are painted with an incredible mural. This mural, which is really a communal autobiography, tells the tale of how the members of this poor community survived the darkest years of the Salvadoran revolution.

The mural depicts their spiritual leader, Monsignor Oscar Romero as Moses and the residents themselves as ancient Israelites, fleeing Egypt under the shadows of the pyramids.

Here, the exodus story was not merely a story, not simply a ritual.

It was the tale that allowed the people of this village to make sense of their lives - the murders of their loved ones, the their flight to Guatemala, their efforts to rebuild their lives. 

It was a reminder that the foundational story of the Jewish people is not primarily an occasion for Seder finger puppets. Throughout the history of the West, the Exodus story has been a source of strength and inspiration for people suffering under oppression. It holds forth the promise that liberation is possible, even when things seem darkest. Not for nothing did the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begin on Passover.

In our country's own history of enslaving African Americans, Exodus was the story, the tale that told an oppressed and brutalized people that slavery would not last forever. From the earliest slave rebellions through the prophetic leadership of Martin Luther King, it was through Exodus that people turned their hopes into plans. 

Alvin Ailey's dance performance, Revelations, tells this tale in music and movement. Revelations is, as Oprah Winfrey put it, "magical and spiritual and hopeful - everything that we want ourselves to be and hope that our country will be.... Every American owes it to him or herself to see the Ailey [company] perform Revelations. It is an American phenomenon."

Our community will be going to see this American masterpiece on December 20 and then meeting privately for dinner and to talk with a retired Ailey dancer about the performance and what it means. Limited tickets are still available, and I hope you will join Cantor Ellen, myself and others to be awed and inspired by this reminder that liberation is not only possible, it's necessary.