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Tomorrow night our students and their families will join millions of Jews around the world in celebrating the start of Pesach. Most of these students and families will do so at someone's home--whether their own or a neighbor's, a grandparent's house or a family friend's. That this yearly ritual, the most observed celebrated ritual in Jewish life, is done in the private space of someone's home already sets the holiday apart. Think back to Autumn and the observance of Yom Kippur. On the day when we are asked to account for our own behavior and to address the shortfalls in our own lives, we gather in Shuls and Temples in the largest gathering that most of those sacred spaces see all year. (At least pre-covid). And yet, on the night when we gather to recall our ancient liberation from Egypt and the transformation of our lives from a rag-tag group of slaves to a newly born nation, we will gather in the privacy of homes and with a few close friends or family and tell the story. On one hand--Yom Kippur focused on the sins that we must atone for individually is observed in mass gatherings. Pesach, when we focus on the preeminent story of our people, is celebrated with small gatherings in intimate settings.
One might ask if the ancient rabbis in developing the rituals associated with each sacred event got the settings wrong. Wouldn't it have made more sense to focus on our own sins in the comfort of our own home, and to celebrate the beginning of people's enduring mission in a large and festive communal gathering? The answer is obviously no. As for Yom Kippur, we all know that left to our schedule and timing we would continue to hide in the comfort of our homes and avoid addressing the shortfalls of the past year and errors of our ways. By gathering together with hundreds of others in a sanctuary and reciting the litany of our mistakes over and over again, we actually are able to begin the admission of error and address our own mistakes. When each of us sees the other joining together in renouncing sin and admitting wrongs, it makes it much easier to do what needs to be done.
On the other hand, we each have a unique connection that needs to be made to the Pesach story, the core story of our people. We all need to find the idiom that resonates with each of us individually in order to begin to fully identify with the people of which we are inextricably linked and connected to. And that is why we must do so in the comfort of a smaller setting, telling the story in our own way, allowing the words of the Haggadah to connect to the experiences of the life that we are living. It is why there are more Haggadot editions coming out every year with different readings and different explanations and sometimes even additional items added to the original Seder Plate itself. For linking our destiny to a people demands that we find our unique path back to the meaning of our people's on-going and ever unfolding narrative that began in Egypt long ago and continues to this very day. It is why there are 4 different images of children spoken about at the Seder itself. It is why there is a requirement that we see ourselves as if we were liberated from Egypt. It is why we must affirm that in every generation there arose one who sought to destroy us--and yet we prevailed.
More than the Jewish people have kept Pesach, Pesach has actually sustained the Jewish people through generations of challenge and joy. Today, we face serious concerns about the future of our people, the State of Israel, and the larger world in which we live. At CJDS, we are making a positive statement about the importance of ensuring that the story never ends. On behalf of our faculty and staff, our lay leadership and our students--we thank all of you who make it possible for CJDS to provide a place for the Jewish vision and mission to be joyfully transmitted from generation to generation.
I wish you all a "hag kasher v'sameach (a festive and kosher festival); a "zissen Pesach (a sweet Pesach); "Hag Aviv Sameach" (A joyful Spring festival) or "gut yontiff" (a good holiday). Whatever the greeting, the sentiment is all the same!
Rabbi Allen
Transitional Head of School
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