“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”
The plagues God visited on the Egyptians in Egypt seem to be a parade of people’s greatest fears, a mythological show of the power of the living versus primal fear.
Starting from the blood of birth and of death, through primal human fears of small creatures (lice) and large ones (wild beasts), fear of financial ruin (locusts), fear of the dark (losing direction and meaning), we face the greatest fear: the fear of our children’s lives – loss of the future. Tonight, a night to commemorate the past, we seek the mercy of God’s protection, look out from our places at a world full of fears and dangers – and pray for another quiet year.
Shai Zarchi, Israeli educator at "HaMidrasha" and a reciepient of the Liebhaber prize for the Promotion of Religius Tolerance.
*HaMidrasha promotes Jewish renewal in Israel by using the Israeli-Zionist experience as a platform for reconnecting to Jewish heritage.
Time-servers are the cowering slaves of slaves,
Alone on earth, who serves the Lord is free,
Each soul shall win the gift that it most craves;
Seek God, my soul -- God shall your portion be!
Originating from the Greek, "karpos," meaning "fruit of the soil," this tradition borrows from the Greco-Roman symposium which always began with washing and dipping "karpos" accompanied by discussion.
While some medieval rabbis strictly forbid eating more than an olive's size of vegetable for Karpas, you may wish to revive the ancient custom of eating extensive appetizers - each with its own dip.
The ritual handwashing prepares us for eating finger foods, Karpas, the hor d'oeuvres of the Pesach banquet. Following the preistly tradition of washing hands before eating bread and even vegetables, the ritual handwashing is performed now in order to sanctify the eating of the Karpas. However, no blessing is said for this handwashing.
Ask for two volunteers: one to carry a pitcher of water and to pour water over each guest's hands, and one ot carry a basin and a towel. Having our hands washed by someone else is part of the Seder night experience of liberty and nobility.
On Shabbat and holidays, we celebrate the double gift of abundance with two whole loaves just as in the desert the Jews received a double portion of manna (Ex. 16:22) every Friday for the weekend. ("Manna feom heaven was suspended on shabbat).
However, the seder night is unique in that the Rabbis mandated that half a loaf is better than one, for matza is called the "bread of poverty" (Deut. 16:3).
Therefore, the seder begins by breaking the matza in two and explaining that "this is the bread of poverty and persecution."
Of the three matzot, two remain whole, in order to symplize the abundance of freedom, but one must be broken to recall the deprivation of slavery. The Rabbis noted that the poor in their era were "savers," experts at delayed gratification, who would never consume a complete loaf at one sitting, but would always put something aside against the uncertainty of the following week. In the midst of the seer bbanquet, the broken matza -- the symbol of poverty -- is meant to jar us out of our sense of complacency. Maimondides explains that the Torah repeats so often: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt," because it fears that growing up in wealth tends to breed arrogance and insensitivity.
“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”
The plagues God visited on the Egyptians in Egypt seem to be a parade of people’s greatest fears, a mythological show of the power of the living versus primal fear.
Starting from the blood of birth and of death, through primal human fears of small creatures (lice) and large ones (wild beasts), fear of financial ruin (locusts), fear of the dark (losing direction and meaning), we face the greatest fear: the fear of our children’s lives – loss of the future. Tonight, a night to commemorate the past, we seek the mercy of God’s protection, look out from our places at a world full of fears and dangers – and pray for another quiet year.
Shai Zarchi, Israeli educator at "HaMidrasha" and a reciepient of the Liebhaber prize for the Promotion of Religius Tolerance.
*HaMidrasha promotes Jewish renewal in Israel by using the Israeli-Zionist experience as a platform for reconnecting to Jewish heritage.
Time-servers are the cowering slaves of slaves,
Alone on earth, who serves the Lord is free,
Each soul shall win the gift that it most craves;
Seek God, my soul -- God shall your portion be!
Originating from the Greek, "karpos," meaning "fruit of the soil," this tradition borrows from the Greco-Roman symposium which always began with washing and dipping "karpos" accompanied by discussion.
While some medieval rabbis strictly forbid eating more than an olive's size of vegetable for Karpas, you may wish to revive the ancient custom of eating extensive appetizers - each with its own dip.
The ritual handwashing prepares us for eating finger foods, Karpas, the hor d'oeuvres of the Pesach banquet. Following the preistly tradition of washing hands before eating bread and even vegetables, the ritual handwashing is performed now in order to sanctify the eating of the Karpas. However, no blessing is said for this handwashing.
Ask for two volunteers: one to carry a pitcher of water and to pour water over each guest's hands, and one ot carry a basin and a towel. Having our hands washed by someone else is part of the Seder night experience of liberty and nobility.
On Shabbat and holidays, we celebrate the double gift of abundance with two whole loaves just as in the desert the Jews received a double portion of manna (Ex. 16:22) every Friday for the weekend. ("Manna feom heaven was suspended on shabbat).
However, the seder night is unique in that the Rabbis mandated that half a loaf is better than one, for matza is called the "bread of poverty" (Deut. 16:3).
Therefore, the seder begins by breaking the matza in two and explaining that "this is the bread of poverty and persecution."
Of the three matzot, two remain whole, in order to symplize the abundance of freedom, but one must be broken to recall the deprivation of slavery. The Rabbis noted that the poor in their era were "savers," experts at delayed gratification, who would never consume a complete loaf at one sitting, but would always put something aside against the uncertainty of the following week. In the midst of the seer bbanquet, the broken matza -- the symbol of poverty -- is meant to jar us out of our sense of complacency. Maimondides explains that the Torah repeats so often: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt," because it fears that growing up in wealth tends to breed arrogance and insensitivity.
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