Our Haggadah—with its core over 1,000 years old—takes us on a remarkable journey that combines narrative and observance into an intellectual and experiential event for people of all ages and backgrounds. In this manner, we travel alongside our ancestors from freedom to slavery to redemption.
The Jewish people, in order to succeed, have to live and lead in the real world. To deal with the challenges facing us as a nation we must think, act and believe rationally. A rational person does not believe in olives 20 times the size of the olives we see with our own eyes. To deal with reality, we have to get real.
Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, is being observed this year on April 14. Although focus on the Holocaust is important, we need a powerful, positive presentation of Jewish history, Jewish connection to the land of Israel, Jewish idealism, and Jewish striving for peace and mutual understanding.
The narrative arc of the Tabernacle reaches its culmination in Vayakhel. What began with the divine blueprints in Parashat Terumah now becomes a human achievement. The Torah lingers over the construction with remarkable detail, signaling that something essential is being revealed—not only about Israel’s worship, but about Israel’s relationship with God and the world.
Many years ago, a young lady came to my office to discuss the possibility of her conversion to Judaism. She was raised in Saudi Arabia to American parents in the American military. She grew up hating Israel and hating Jews—although she had never met either an Israeli or a Jew.
In 1966, the Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to S. Y. Agnon. This was a major event for the Jewish world at large and for Israel in particular. Agnon was the first Israeli to win a Nobel in any field, and he remains the only Hebrew-language author ever to have received the Nobel Prize in literature. He died February 17, 1970 at age 82.
The core of Jewish liturgy traces back to the early rabbinic period. Over the centuries, Sephardim and Ashkenazim developed different nuances in their prayer liturgies. It is valuable to learn about the differences that emerged, to see how rabbinic interpretations and cultures shaped the religious experiences underlying prayer.
Tseniut is not simply a system of prevention from sin. Rather, it encompasses a positive philosophy relating to the nature of human beings. While acknowledging the power of human sexuality, tseniut teaches that human beings are more than mere sexual beings.
The Haggadah is a prime example of using words to convey Jewish history and tradition. The word Haggadah means ‘telling,’ and we ‘tell’ the story of our liberation from bondage with words of praise and study. But like most things, words are a two-edged sword. They can sustain a nation and its heritage and, as the Haggadah reminds us, they can cause great suffering.
By placing the account of Jethro’s visit immediately before the invitation to be “a nation of
priests,” the Torah illustrates the kind of priests that God calls us to be: people who act with
wisdom, justice, compassion and humility.