Rabbis' Blog - Chabad Lubavitch

Don’t overlook this important Passover preparation

Friday, March 24, 2023 - 2:06 PM

Since the dawn of our nation, Pesach has been the one festival that by definition necessitates extensive preparations. Cleaning the home from all chametz (leaven), preparing flour and water worthy of being baked as Matzah and cooking a proper dinner for Seder night are only some of the preparations necessary to celebrate a kosher, joyous, and meaningful Pesach.

But one crucial preparation which has become more essential today more than ever is woven into the fabric of the storytelling of the Exodus on Seder night - by its absence.

The Haggadah (Seder handbook) delineates the order and the methods of how to observe all the obligations of the evening including the mitzvah of retelling the story of our ancestors’ miraculous redemption from Egyptian slavery 3,335 years ago. The story is meant to be told as a response to the child's curious questions about the many changes of the evening: Why are we dipping so much? Why is the bread of choice only Matzah? Why eat bitter herbs tonight? And finally, why is everyone reclining as if they have not a care in the world?

Even if there are no children present at the Seder, the question-and-answer style remains, because even adults must learn and grow, and the Seder is an educational experience for all. In fact, at my family seders, everyone asks the “Four Questions” after the children had their turn because we are all being educated on Seder night.

Based on nuanced differences between the four times the Torah discusses the Seder-night storytelling, the Haggadah defines four types of children (or adults) present at the Seder table.

There is the devout, studious Jew who cares deeply about every detail of the Seder’s proceedings. Another type is negatively triggered by the perceived archaic nature of the service and fails to see its relevance in 2023. Others are just bewildered and simply ask “What’s going on here tonight?” And finally, there are those who are apathetic to the whole spiel and don’t even bother to ask any questions.

We are obligated to respond to every “type” on their level. Teach the scholar everything there is to know about the Seder, and explain the meaning of true spiritual freedom to the rebel in a way that makes it as compelling as ever in 2023. Don’t overwhelm the simpleton with too many details and be sure to engage the guy who can’t wait for the Seder to end.

However, there is a “fifth child” not even mentioned in the Haggadah. In 1957, the Rebbe wrote an urgent public letter alerting world Jewry to the alarming crisis of the “fifth child” growing each year: Jews who are not even showing up to the Seder. The reasons for their absence are irrelevant and we must do everything in our power to bring them to a Seder table.

Why does the Haggadah not mention the fifth child? Because by the time we open the Haggadah on Seder night, it’s too late to arrange for the missing Jews to come. We must work on inspiring them to participate well before the Seder begins.

As your Pesach preparations kick into full gear, please don’t forget to arrange for all your Jewish friends and acquaintances to participate in a Seder on Wednesday evening, April 5.

The Chabad public Seder is open to the entire Jewish community and no one will be turned away due to lack of funds. Please help spread the message and ensure that every Jew in El Paso leaves the category of the “fifth child” and has the opportunity to experience authentic Jewish freedom.

Brightening the gray days

Friday, March 10, 2023 - 2:00 PM

The Purim spirit is still in the air as I finish packing away the last bit of supplies and uploading the online album of another amazing holiday. Although Passover will be here in less than a month with all the joy and celebration it brings, I always wonder how to channel the holiday cheer into the plain gray days.

Merriam-Webster defines joy as “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” But Judaism teaches that joy is a religious obligation. King David writes in Psalms “Serve G-d with joy” and divine service is constant, even when life is bleak. Maimonides refers to joy as a “huge service” one needs to work hard on achieving. How is this even possible?

Around Purim 1977 the Rebbe wrote a letter to a woman in Israel who complained about her feelings of worthlessness and the plain drudgery of daily life.

“One of the tips for raising your morale is to reflect on how every single person is G-d’s messenger to do good and increase goodness in the world. Normally this is not accomplished through revolutions and thunderous self-sacrifice. Rather, through living your daily life in accordance with the Code of Jewish Law, and through being active, specifically with activities that society refers to as “gray” and “small.” Helping people around you and educating yourself step by step (without skipping and rushing). This can all be accomplished… on the “gray days.”

In this week’s parsha we learn how the entire Jewish nation was implicated in an idolatrous scandal merely 40 days after receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. They were on such a spiritual high after experiencing the most epic divine revelation, only to crash into the depths of sin and guilt, endangered by G-d’s threat to destroy them.

Through a series of events that forever lives on as Moshe’s finest hour, which included breaking the Two Tablets and intense negotiating with G-d, disaster was averted and the nation was bequeathed a new set of tablets containing the same Ten Commandments they heard at Mt. Sinai.

Although the Jews failed miserably in keeping the commandments in such a short time, G-d did not change them nor alter the divine plan. Because Jewish living is not exclusive to perfect saints who heard G-d speak at Sinai. Every law and observance is accessible to every Jew, and even on the gray monotonous days, you are able to fulfill your G-d given mission on earth. Appreciating this fact well and living by it, is a sure way to brighten the gray days and live joyfully all the time.

The Reluctant Politician

Friday, March 3, 2023 - 1:54 PM

No one is perfect but common sense and basic decency dictate that when honoring an individual or expressing gratitude for their devoted service, criticism, however true it may be, is inappropriate. Everything has a time and place.

The Megillah (Book of Esther), which was written by Mordechai and Esther, concludes with a tribute to Mordechai who continued serving as an advocate and protector for his people even after the Purim drama. “For Mordechai the Jew was viceroy to King Achashveirosh, and great among the Jews and accepted by most of his brethren; seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all their seed.”

Why was Mordechai accepted only by most of his brethren and not all his brethren after he saved their lives? And even if there were some Jews who had a negative opinion of him, why must Mordechai include this information in the written scroll of his legacy? Many important details of the narrative were preserved by oral tradition and later included in the Midrash and Talmud, and the details of his negative popularity among some could have been included there.

Our sages point out the verse’s distinction between “the Jews” and Mordechai’s “brethren.” Mordechai “was great among the Jews” - everyone adored Mordechai and revered him for his role in navigating them through Haman’s diabolical plot. Mordechai’s “brethren” refers to his peers and colleagues in the Sanhedrin - the Jewish High Court. He was a central figure in this select group of seventy brilliant scholars, the central governing authority of all Jews even in exile and the nucleus of Torah study and tradition.

Until the Purim saga, Mordechai spent the bulk of his time with the Sanhedrin, preserving Torah tradition, and teaching thousands of students, while his work in the palace was minimal. But after Esther revealed her true identity to the king and Mordechai was appointed viceroy, he was forced to cut back on his Torah study and teaching hours, to attend to matters of state.

Most of his colleagues in the Sanhedrin approved of this change in Mordechai’s schedule for the benefit of Jewish survival. Achashveirosh was still a rabid antisemite, prone to mood swings and easily persuadable, and it was crucial to keep close tabs on him. But some felt it was a shame to lose such a Torah scholar to Persian politics - and Mordechai felt the same. He viewed his ascent to global power and fame as a position to be filled out of a sense of sacred duty to Jewish survival, not the realization of a lifelong dream. He constantly yearned for the day he could once again devote every waking hour to Torah study.

In the concluding verse of the Megillah Mordechai wants us to know, that even when the most sacred duty of protecting the Jewish nation calls for a Jew to engage full-time in the mundane world, he or she must always remember that their natural habitat is in Torah study and the preservation of our glorious heritage.