Rabbi's Message —March 2010

Pesach Time is Here!

Passover is almost here. My favorite holiday! Passover gives us a joyous opportunity to be with our family and all the people we love. We come together to celebrate the blossoming of nature and the renewal of our hopes and dreams as individuals and as a people. Perhaps more than anything else, Passover allows us to see ourselves through the lens of Jewish time and Jewish history. The stories we tell during Passover are not just stories, they are OUR stories. Moses, the Exodus, the 4 questions, the 4 sons, 4 cups of wine, matzah, charoset, maror, the 10 plagues, Chad Gadya and so much more are there in our seder to guide us and inspire us as we strive to add meaning and purpose to our complex lives.

Passover reminds us that once we were slaves and now we are free. We read in the Haggadah, “In every generation, each of us is to see ourselves as though we have gone out from Egypt.” The rabbis help us understand this directive. They point to the Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitrayim, and teach us that Mitzrayim stems from the Hebrew word tzar, meaning narrow, constrained, inhibited. Thus, to say that we must see ourselves as though we have gone out from Egypt, is to say that each of us must struggle to break out of our narrowness, the pettiness, the small thinking that confines us. If we are ever to reach our fullest potential we must free ourselves—physically, spiritually and emotionally—from that which enslaves us.

As we gather with family and friends to share our Passover seder, and retell the story of our deliverance from Egypt, let us be inspired to rise above the narrowness that seems to always hold us back. May we be inspired to go forth, deepening a sense of connection with God, with ourselves, with our families and with our Temple Or Rishon community.

From My House to Yours . . . Chag Sameach!

L'Shalom,
Rabbi Alan Rabishaw