Every year people co-opt Passover to push party political agendas. This year, Jewish human rights organizations are already promoting Passover Haggadah materials that urge people to put “social justice on the seder table” and confront “racism,” poverty, authoritarianism and the climate crisis. Instead of letting the holiday change us, we continue to recruit people to support causes.
Predictable columns reframe the holiday as a lesson in immigrant rights. Reform Judaism even encourages adding modern political symbols to the seder plate, such as olives in solidarity with Palestinians, oranges to symbolize LGBTQ+ inclusivity, fair trade chocolate to represent labor rights, and acorns to honor American Indians.
I am guilty of this myself. I once wrote a column arguing that including the “bad child” at the Seder table symbolically rejects cancel culture, and an article arguing that the Exodus story defends freedom of speech because Moses demanded that Pharaoh “let my people go,” and that the Israelites earned redemption in part by preserving their language under slavery.
But the politicization of religion threatens to overshadow its personal and spiritual essence.
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Progressives do this. Conservatives do that too. The right appeals to the Bible to oppose abortion and defend traditional family values. The left invokes it to defend social justice.
Passover is not about figuring out the world’s problems. It is about the bondage within ourselves. What matters is that the story can transform us. (iStock)
Pope Leo Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who publicly called for mercy toward refugees in the name of God after President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, has re-entered the immigration fight by appearing at anti-ICE protests in Minnesota in January 2026.
Even matzoh teaches us this. Unlike inflated bread, it is flat and modest. It stands in stark contrast to a culture obsessed with image and ego. In a world that rewards inflated self-interest, Matzoh reminds us that true liberation begins with humility.
Each side finds its cause and often quotes contradictory verses to prove its point. Nehemiah 4:13-14 is used to justify border security by comparing it to defending the walls of Jerusalem, while Leviticus 19:34 is used to argue for a more tolerant immigration policy because it enforces friendliness toward the foreigner. Genesis 2:15 supports environmental policy because it presents humans as caretakers, while Genesis 1:28 speaks of dominion over nature and can be used to justify the exploitation of natural resources.
When religion is reduced to political ammunition, it loses its meaning. It becomes performative instead of transformative.
In this photo taken on Wednesday, April 20, 2016, the famous Bird’s Head Haggadah, a medieval copy of a text read around the Passover festive table, is on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Of course, faith can also be a force for moral clarity in public life. The Exodus inspired abolitionists. Rabbis marched for civil rights. But faith should do more than fuel activism. Faith is deeply personal.
It’s like the old ethical teaching about someone who spends his life trying to change the world, his country, his city, and his family before finally realizing that if he wants to have the greatest impact, he must first change himself. Passover makes the same demand. Before we use the holiday to make the world a better place, we are asked to confront our own demons.
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I have felt this tension at my Seder table. Instead of searching my soul, I mindlessly leaf through the Haggadah, muse on scientific explanations for the parting of the sea and the ten plagues, or get bogged down in politics. Everything except inner work.
But Passover isn’t about figuring out the world’s problems. It is about the bondage within ourselves. What matters is that the story can transform us. The Haggadah commands each person to view themselves as if they had personally left Egypt. It is not a metaphor for anyone else’s struggle, for whatever political leader you think Pharaoh represents, or for whatever oppressed people the Israelites reflect. It is a challenge to face our own limitations and pursue our own salvation, one good deed at a time.
Through this principle, the Lubavitcher Rebbe rebuilt Jewish life from the ashes of the Holocaust. As documented in “Letters for Life,” the Rebbe focused not on politics or ideology, but on encouraging one positive act, one mitzvah, at a time to create lasting transformation. Psychology supports this. Behavioral activation therapy, used to treat depression, shows how acting with purpose can reshape the mind even before motivation arrives.
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The Seder reflects the same idea. The four cups of wine represent stages of breaking destructive patterns, embracing positive change, developing ethical awareness, and internalizing growth.
Through rituals and storytelling we make our way to liberation. We don’t just commemorate the Exodus. We live it.
Even matzoh teaches us this. Unlike inflated bread, it is flat and modest. It stands in stark contrast to a culture obsessed with image and ego. In a world that rewards inflated self-interest, Matzoh reminds us that true liberation begins with humility. You cannot escape Pharaoh if you are still enslaved to your own ego.
Even matzoh teaches us this. Unlike inflated bread, it is flat and modest. It stands in stark contrast to a culture obsessed with image and ego. (iStock)
We eat bitter herbs at the Seder not only to commemorate the suffering of our ancestors, but also to confront our own, to taste the bitterness we carry and to draw out what we have buried.
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Egypt is not just a historical place. It’s a personal metaphor. Mental chains are just as real as physical chains. Fear, shame, addiction and resentment are our modern pharaohs. The Seder gives us a spiritual road map for breaking free.
Faith is not meant to serve our platforms or confirm our political biases. It is meant to challenge us and transform us into better people.
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