Passover 2022

Pesach, which falls this Friday night, commemorates the most important moment in Jewish history.  We have no commandment to remember Saini, or the day we entered Israel, but we have many which commemorate the Exodus from Egypt because this moment of leaving Egypt and becoming a nation contextualizes who we are as Jews more than any other.   

The Exodus is framed by the seder because the seder is the most Jewish experience there is, in that it requires, to name a few elements:

• Acting and learning

• Eating and drinking

• Thinking about different kinds of Jewish children and adults as individuals

• Not just telling a story, but learning how to tell the story from stories of how our ancestors told the story  

• Intergenerational dialogue with questions and answers

• Singing

• Memory

If you did not get a chance to attend our Shabbat HaGodol Drasha on Zoom this year, on the topic of the History of Kitniot (Legumes on Passover), you can access it and other classes in the video section of my new website (thank you to my son Ben for all of his work putting it together!).  I am using this site to archive past writings and classes - for access just click here: www.RabbiShafner.org 

Our blessings for a freeing Passover, a joyous Pesach, and a Chag Kasher V’sameach!