We take for granted that we can go to the supermarket and buy boxes of Passover matzah. For the Abayudaya community in Uganda, it's not such a simple thing. Last year, for the first time in a long time, the community could participate in fulfilling the mitzvah of eating matzah after I sent boxes via military airlift. Serving in 2011...
The Exodus narrative -- so central to our Passover seder -- also informs our social consciousness as a people. The Bible teaches in very strong words, v'ahavtem et ha'ger, you must love the stranger, the other, the individual who is the underdog in whatever society you happen to find yourself, ki gerim hayitem b'eretz Mitzrayim, because you were the other,...
The story of Passover is a story shared by both Jews and Christians. And in a sense, it is a story that speaks to all people. In its deep wisdom, the Jewish tradition understands that it is not just a story from thousands of years ago, but that the cry of the Israelites for deliverance from their oppressors is a...
Of all the words we utter at the Pesach seder, the word k'ilu (it's translated as two words, "as if") rings most important. The word is found in Rabban Gamliel's Mishnaic declaration: "In every generation, every person is obligated to see himself or herself as if he or she personally went out of Egypt." "As if." This phrase signals the...
On Saturday, March 17, 2012, a fire started in a home on Poplar Street in Northern Liberties. We were nearby, praying in a space that we use as a synagogue for our Shabbos services. At about 11:30 a.m., a group of the children who had come to the prayers with their parents ran into the service. They had been playing...
Sivan 10, 5773
