I have been slowly working my way through an 800-page tome, A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor. The book defines the age we live in as "secular," and asks and attempts to answer what it means to live in a secular age. What does it mean to be "religious" in a secular age? When did this secular age begin? What influences caused the change from religious to secular? How does secularism influence the society? How is being religious in a secular age different from being religious in a religious age? Besides being long, the book is difficult--a "dictionary" book--but, for me anyhow, endlessly fascinating. It is, in some ways, my story, an account of trying to be religious in a secular age

The book uses the words "enchanted" and "disenchanted" to describe part of the difference between a religious and secular age. When we accuse each other of "magical" thinking or of living in a "fantasy" world, we are subconsciously or, perhaps, consciously, harkening back to the "enchanted" world of our past and affirming that our "disenchanted" status is fragile. An enchanted world is a world of mysterious and secret forces outside both the human and natural realms: sprites, leprechauns, angels and demons. A disenchanted world is devoid of these fantasies. "Holiness" is a difficult, even foreign, concept in a disenchanted world. What, after all, makes something holy?

I am not yet sure what this all means, "enchantment" as I began to consider Passover. When we sit down at the Passover Seder, we are entering an "enchanted" world. This is the very essence of what the Seder offers us. Passover is, according to our tradition, zman cheiruteinu, "the season of our freedom." That does not mean it is a kind of Jewish July 4. That is the very least of it. The notion of zman cheiruteinu carries with it the notion that at this season, at this moment, the stars are aligned for freedom. Liberation, freedom, whatever you wish to call it, is embedded into the very time structure of the universe in this season, in this cycle of time that comes around each year.

Christianity uses the term "anamnesis" in conjunction with the Eucharist to describe this phenomenon. It is the actual reliving of a moment of the past--and not merely symbolically. This is a small part of what it means to live in an enchanted world. The past can actually be re-experienced in the present. "Bechol va dor chyav adam lirot et atzmo k'ilu hu yatza m'mitzrayim: In every generation each person is required to see themselves as if they went forth from Egypt." This is the charge to us on Passover--to relive the moment, to feel it, to look upon ourselves in the experience of the exodus.

What an awesome challenge this is for us in our secular disenchanted age. How do we make our Seder experience rife with possibility so that we leave the table not merely with full stomachs, but fully re-energized with a message of freedom and with a feeling of renewal, new possibility, new commitment and new hope, no longer bonded by whatever our personal enslavement may be?

This year, we at Micah are devoting part of our Passover to rededicating ourselves to bearing witness to and helping to combat the atrocities in Darfur. The Seder is our "night of watching." We must not turn away from the genocide, violence and murder that plague that part of the world. The Seder's message is to keep watch, to guard. We are called to be the voice of conscience. When we open the door to Elijah, let us open the door to a new commitment to freedom.

The religious voice can be powerful in a secular age when it reminds us of who we are and what our purpose is in every season of the year.

Best wishes for a joyous Passover in your home. Come, strengthen us in our commitment to bring freedom to those who are once again held in bondage in Africa.