As Passover starts tonight, I want to send all of you best wishes and blessings for a fulfilling and happy holiday. You don't need me to tell you that these are challenging times to be a Jew, an American, a human being.
Passover's central message is that better times are possible. Enslaved people can win freedom, endangered people can find safety.
Today, our Israeli siblings are celebrating their seders with one ear for the sirens and digital alerts telling them to take shelter from incoming bombs. Around the Middle East, residents face the reality of
war.
Here in America, we can acknowledge and appreciate the relative safety and security we enjoy, even as we remain alert to the rise of anti-Jewish bigotry and to the suffering of others.
Over the next eight days, I hope that we take heart from the freedom story of the
Exodus from Egypt, remembering also the exodus of our own families from oppression in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Mo'adim l'simcha -- a happy Pesach -- to all my Nafshenu friends.
Rabbi David Goodman
rebdovid@nafshenu.org, 248-508-0874
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Here are excerpts from a Passover message from
Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of Reconstructing Judaism:
The Exodus story is not preserved so we can rehearse our victimhood. It is preserved so we can remember our obligations. Jewish memory is not meant to seal us off from the world; it is meant to send us back into it responsible for the freedom we were given.
Having known oppression, we are obligated to stand for freedom.
Having experienced perilousness, we are obligated to defend dignity.
Having
witnessed the dangers of unchecked power, we are obligated to fight for the well-being of all people.
