D’var Torah: Passover

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by Rabbi Barry Cohen

March 25, 2026

I love this holiday because I love a good question:

Who am I?
Where do I come from?
Who is my family?
What is my purpose?

The Passover story holds space for all of these questions. And whether or not the story happened exactly as told, each generation continues to shape it—retelling, expanding, and renewing our shared narrative through the Haggadah.

Did you know there are 3,000–5,000 different versions of the Passover Haggadah? That alone reflects our enduring effort to answer life’s biggest questions.

Where Our Story Begins

Every Haggadah shares one essential truth: We began in slavery.

What kind of people begin their foundational story this way?

Each year, I find myself struggling to truly feel what it means to have been enslaved.

And yet, this is where the Passover story intersects with a core human—and spiritual—skill:

Empathy

How can I empathize with the enslaved?
How can we?

If we can begin to feel what our ancestors felt, we create an unbreakable bond across generations.

Today, the Jewish community—and our broader society—continues to grow more complex:

culturally
ethnically
racially
politically

So how do we remain connected?

We must learn to truly empathize with one another.
To feel the emotions that bind our identities.

And beyond our own community—how do we relate to the growing complexity of our fellow citizens?

The Haggadah offers insight here as well.

A Mixed Multitude

When our ancestors left Egypt, they did not leave alone.

They were joined by a mixed multitude.

Together, in the wilderness, they became a people—united in pursuit of a shared future.

What did that feel like?

To depend on one another
To trust leadership
To transform and share common dreams
To journey together as allies, collaborators, and partners in sacred relationship