Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

This week I have been pretty singularly focused on Pesach. If I have a favorite holiday, it is Passover.  

For me it brings out two of our most prominent Jewish values. One is the idea of Machloket L’Sheim Shamayim - argument for the sake of heaven. Respectful disagreement is how we learn and how we grow. In our Pesach Seder, we read of the Machloket, the disagreement and debate between Rav and Shmuel. Shmuel speaks of our enslavement being of the body, or physical enslavement. Rav speaks of spiritual enslavement - the idols we worship or our misplaced idolization. It is a debate that compels us to think about what might enslave us.

The other value is one of empathy. We are keenly aware of our obligation to not oppress the stranger, and to love the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt. Specifically, our Haggadah states that we must place ourselves as if we ourselves were slaves so that we know the feeling of being enslaved. If we know that feeling, we would never want anyone else to feel that way.

Likewise, the ritual surrounding the ten plagues is one of having empathy for the suffering of even those we may have considered to be our enemies. Our joy over our freedom is diminished by the suffering of Egyptians. Pharaoh not only victimizes our Israelite ancestors through cruel and callous acts but also victimizes his own people, civilians who have not caused harm to us.

This is where we are at now. We mourn those Jews who lost their lives on October 7, those who were taken hostage and have already died in captivity, and those still being held hostage.  Yet the ritual of the ten plagues also connects us to innocent Palestinians who have nothing to do with the cruel and egregious actions of Hamas.  We see leaders on both sides who have failed their own people.

As we face this most difficult time in our Jewish history, let us not lose sight of our most precious Jewish values. Let us recommit this Pesach to those values, and the blessings that come when we work for a better world.