|
April 15, 2022 (14 Nisan 5782) Chag Sameach Dear Friends, I hope this correspondence finds you doing well, in good health, and in good cheer! We continue to build our programming and services and hope you will be able to join us to celebrate Pesach this weekend and next, either in person or over Zoom. We also invite you to join us for our Yom HaShoah commemoration on Wednesday, April 27 at 7:00pm, at which time we will be joined with world-renowned Holocaust researcher, Alan Brauner. One of the central features of the Passover Seder is the repetition of the number four. After all, there are four questions, called the Ma Nishtana, typically asked or chanted by the youngest around the table. There are four cups of wine (or for us simpler people, grape juice). There are four Hebrew names of the holiday. There are four sons of which the Haggadah speaks. The repetition of the number comes from a passage in the Torah text that we read several weeks ago as HaShem was first explaining His game plan to Moshe. Hashem addresses Moshe in the following text from Exodus 6:6-8: “Say, therefore, to the Israelite people: I am יהוה. I will take you out from the labors of the Egyptians and I will save you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements. I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I, יהוה, am your God, who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land which I swore* to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession, I יהוה.” For those of you sensitive to numeric consideration, you may note that in the above referenced text, there are actually five verbs of God’s work, and not 4. Nonetheless, in a nuanced rabbinic interpretation, our sages suggest that today, we live only in the first four verbs. The fifth verb of eschatology, meaning ultimate redemption, is still our hope, wish, and prayer for the future. Now that you know the basis for the repetition of four, let me challenge all of us with four goals for the new Biblical year:
Finally, as we enter into Pesach and Shabbat, let’s think about the fifth verb, the ultimate promise of peace on earth, acknowledgment of God’s Kingship, and our spiritual enlightenment with neighbors, friends, and family. Can you be the fulfillment of that fifth verb? My guess is that you can. Let’s do it together! May this Shabbat and Pesach bring us all to a place of peace, Torah, connection, and devotion. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,
Rabbi Eric Wasser, EdD, Hon.DM
|