WEEKLY Insider Welcome to the updated Weekly Insider! We value your feedback and welcome any suggestions to enhance our offering. APRIL 22ND 2024 ISSUE
A PASSAGE ON PASSOVER PT. II
By: Rabbi Yonina Foster, Jewish Community Services
Passover or Pesach quite literally translates to “to pass over.“ On that tenth and final plague, the story says the angel of death--of transformation and revolution--passed over the houses of the Hebrews when they saw the lamb’s blood on the door lintels, sparing them on that horrific night. Each of the previous nine plagues had become more severe and harder to ignore. Making changes. What are signs and wonders, hints on your path, leading you to make important changes? Hopefully, there are fewer than ten pointing you clearly in the direction of living your purpose. Before Passover, we clean out “chametz,” that stuff that puffs up our ego. We clear out the puffiness of life, crumbs and leavening. Spring cleaning. Then we eat matzah, a cracker, for eight days. Our Seder, “order,” is the first night, and possibly the second, or a time when family, friends, and strangers can gather. There is a special plate with symbolic foods. There’s a hard- boiled roasted egg--symbolizing rebirth and renewal. There are spring greens, bitter herbs, represented by a horseradish root to represent our tears, and a shank bone to recall the sacrifice that we made before leaving the narrow place of Mitzrayim. While some of the items are less than tasty, a favorite is usually the charoseth, to represent the bitter of enslavement and the sweet of our freedom. A mixture, of wine or juice, chopped apple, walnuts, and a little cinnamon reminds of the grittiness of our slavery and the sweetness of freedom. All these foods and more are part of the story of freedom we tell during the Seder, through the Haggadah. It is “The Telling,” of the story of our freedom. Each of us is involved as if we, too, made the journey from Egypt to freedom. What is your freedom story? Tell it. Share it and celebrate each freedom journey.
LESS THAN ONE MONTH UNTIL THE MATZAH BALL! Thank you to staff who have already reached out to volunteer and/or purchase tickets for our upcoming Matzah Ball on Thursday, May 16, 2024 at Temple Beth Zion.
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE
If you would like to attend the event as a guest, we are happy to offer staff and one guest a discounted general admission ticket ($25/ each). Please use code JFSSTAFF25 at checkout.