Exodus Magazine - April 2023

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POILIEVRE

Passover. As the name implies, it’s a time of year that empowers us to pass over, to go beyond – beyond the normal limitations of self and society, expectations and manipulations, perhaps even of time and space. Usually, when we start dreaming excessively like that, it’s coming from an immature, escapist, even negative place. Psychological acrobatics that serve as a temporary respite from the mundane so we can survive long enough to plug ourselves back into the matrix and keep on running with the program. Or, if I allow myself to be less cynical, it is an alluring tease of what is possible, a little inspiration from the internal wellspring of the soul. Practically speaking, it’s good in doses, necessary to generate momentum, stay focused on the bigger picture and the higher calling. Left unchecked it can become a distraction from the step-by-step process of engaging in actual change, an escape from that sometimes burdensome reality. And so the best course is generally to not dwell on it too much, milk the inspiration you can get, and move on, focus on what’s real.

Then comes Passover. Now the script is flipped. We’re supposed to indulge in the dreaming, in the impossible. Transcend limitations – both yours and the world’s. There are no rules. Nothing is beyond reach. Forget the natural order. Skip the step-bystep.

When they escaped from Egypt, our ancestors went from complete slaves to masters of their own destiny almost overnight. A few days before, they announced that they are going to slaughter sheep. This was a huge offense to their powerful host nation, who worshipped sheep. They basically told them, “we’re going to slaughter your gods.” Doing it silently, carrying on a silent revolution, is daring enough. Doing it boldly, with blatant taunting in advance, is completely crazy. It’s like announcing exactly where you’re going

to strike, and daring the enemy to try and stop you.

Then, they actually did it. They slaughtered the Egyptian deities. But they didn’t try to cover it up. They did the opposite. They flaunted it. They took the blood and smeared it on their doorposts, as if to say, “Yeah, you got a problem with this? What are you going to do about it? Am I under arrest?”

This is madness. No sane revolutionary who actually wanted to succeed would ever conduct a revolt in this way. But that’s exactly what the Israelites did, empowered by the energy of Passover and a deep yearning to surrender to their G-d and to experience the infinite.

And that’s exactly what you and I can do with this energy right now. We can be insane dreamers, and worry about the practical manifestation of it later. During the week of Passover you are empowered to leap wherever you want to go instantly in your mind and in your heart. And if you can get there in your mind and heart, fully and completely without any doubt or hesitation, then you’re there.

This leads us to the splitting of the sea, where all was laid bare for all to see. The hidden mysteries of the universe and all the beauty of existence suddenly exploded onto the surface in what can only be described as a life-altering, Divinely-inspired, psychedelic experience. The entire nation basically became prophets right there and then. And with this spiritual bounty also came unbelievable material blessing and wealth in its wake.

Like a taut spring, the reality of the normal world order will recoil back into place after Passover. Milk it as much as you can. Go crazy. Dream big. Pass over all semblance of methodological growth. You just might generate enough inspiration to experience a taste of this transcendent freedom in the “real” world – and with it success beyond your wildest dreams.

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anyCleanthehouseforPassover,especiallythekitchen,from breadcrumbsandnonKosher-for-Pesachproducts

6 | JEWISH SOUL

Future World Order

In his master work Yad Hachazoko, Maimonides describes in brief but highly meaningful terms the state of the last era of the Exile as it would be, and how the beginning of the Redemption would follow.

— From the Rebbe's letters

7 | LIFE ON EARTH

The Possible: A Daily Meditation

If you were there in the presence of the Baal Shem Tov, your soul was awakened and your heart throbbed with joy. But if you were never there, then what were you supposed to do?

— by Tzvi Freeman

9 | JEWISH THOUGHT

Redemption and Time

You can live a productive life, mark your days with worthy objectives. But you are still confined within the realm of a mortal, finite and frail universe.

— by Yosef Y. Jacobson

10 | PERSPECTIVES

Why Passover

Passover is a night of questions, but there is one we do not ask, and it is significant. Why was there a Passover in the first place? Why the years of suffering and slavery?

— by Jonathan

Sacks

12 | ASK THE RABBI

What's the Rush?

The way the story goes, the Israelites left Egypt in such a rush, the dough didn’t have time enough to rise. After the whole story, why couldn’t they just spend a few extra minutes to let the bread rise?

— by Rabbi Yoseph

Y. Zaltzman

16 | HOLIDAY GUIDE

Your Passover Companion

What is Passover?

Pre-Passover to do list Passover Seder insights, and more

— by Exodus Staff

Future World order

As in the case of many other Torah matters, there are sources where they are explained at great length. However, inasmuch as not every person has the ability or patience to study these things at length in their original sources, they come also in a short and concentrated form. Thus we find also the subject under discussion formulated in succinct terms by the Great Teacher, Maimonides, who was not only the Guide for the Perplexed of his generation, but for the perplexed of all generations. In his master work Yad Hachazoko, he describes in brief but highly meaningful terms the state of the last era of the Exile as it would be, and how the beginning of the Redemption would follow. I will quote what he states, but in English translation, with interpolations to clarify the text, with some prefatory remarks, namely that it has been amply explained in the Written and Oral Torah that the Redemption will come through the King Moshiach, and as Maimonides also declares, simply as a matter of course, in the section which is the last of his entire Code, so that it is in a sense the very seal of his Code - the section of Laws of Kings. There, at the beginning of chapter II, he states that the King Moshiach will bring the Redemption, and at the end of this chapter he describes carefully the order how this will come about. And since this is not a book on philosophy, but a code of laws, the terms used are carefully chosen and strictly to the point, without polemics or homiletics.

This is what he states (Par. 4): And when a king of the House of David will arrive, dedicated to the study of the Torah and observance of the Mitzvoth like his father David, according to the Written Law and Oral Law, and he will compel all the Jewish people to walk in it and strengthen its fences, and he will fight the wars of G-d, he is assumed to be the Moshiach. (Note that this is not yet a certain sign of the Redemption, for all this can still take place in a state of Exile.) However, if he did so and has succeeded (in the above matters, namely having won all battles and impelled all the Jewish people to study the Torah and to mend its fences, we are still not sure and require a further sign, namely), and built the Temple in its place (- clearly in the holy city of Jerusalem, indicating that there would be a large Jewish population in that

city, yet we are still not certain of the end of the Exile, so a further factor must be fulfilled, namely), and he gathers in the dispersed ones of Israel - then he is certainly the Moshiach. Surely no further commentaries are necessary. I will only add a further significant point, namely that this ruling and Din of Maimonides is not contested by any legal authority. Even the author of the Code of Jewish Law, who has written a commentary on Maimonides, including this very chapter, the well known "Kesef Mishneh" has nothing to question here, accepting it fully, nor are there any other Jewish legal scholars to differ.

To be sure there are various homilies and references and allusions to the period of the Redemption in the Agaddic and Midrashic writings, etc., but these are homilies, and do not affect the practical law. Even in the law we find at first certain differences of opinion on different matters, in the Mishna and Talmud, but once the final decision and legal ruling is arrived at, it is valid for all without question.

It is clear from the above legal ruling of Maimonides that before there can be an ingathering of exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple in its place, there has to be a full and complete return to the Torah and Mitzvoth

while Jews are still in the Exile, and it is this that is the prelude and preparation for the Redemption.

I am aware of the fact that there are many individuals who wish to rely on this or that saying of our Sages, in the Tractate Sanhedrin or in the Jerusalem and the like, in order to base upon it their view, but I have always marveled at the inconsistency of these individuals in regard to their entire approach. For surely Maimonides knew just as well those sayings of the Sages in the Sanhedrin or Jerusalem, etc., and understood them at least as well as the individuals quoting them. The inconsistency is in the fact that these very individuals consider every word and expression of Maimonides's elsewhere as most meticulous, and study it with awesome reverence. Yet when it comes to this simple and straightforward ruling of Maimonides, they simple ignored it altogether.

The reason I have written at some length in reply to your letter (though this length is overly brief in comparison with the subject matter), is that it is simply painful to contemplate how misplaced the concern is of some well-meaning individuals. Instead of each and every Jew, young and old, man and woman, dedicating themselves wholeheartedly to reduce and eventually do away with the causes which brought about the Exile, namely, "because of our sins we have been exiled from our land," and what these "sins" are is clearly spelled out in the Code of Jewish Law – there are many Jews, undoubtedly with good intentions, who use all their energy and influence to find all sorts of means and ways of human invention to bring about the end of the Exile. This is doubly painful for, firstly, it is simply a deception for Jews to believe that there can be any other way of Redemption than that which G-d had specified, and secondly, while engaged in other ways and means in futile effort to end the Exile, they cannot engage fully in the true battle against the Exile in terms of the ruling of Maimonides.

May G-d grant that each and all of us in the midst of all Israel should be inspired with true Heavenly inspiration to walk in the way of the Torah and to mend its fences, for it is this that will prepare the way for Moshiach to implement all the conditions necessary to bring about the truly full and complete Redemption. EM

the Possible: A dAily MeditAtion

It was Moses’ last day, and he pulled all stops. If he couldn't get his point across now, his entire life’s effort was sunk. He understood that what he was asking of these people was nothing less than a miracle. It had never been done before. No one before Moses had ever put so much responsibility, so much trust, so much faith in an entire nation.

“What I am telling you today to do in this land you are about to enter,” he told them, “—to lead divine lives upon its soil, to be a nation of priests to all nations, to ensure that your children and their children will continue in your ways so that the heavens will dwell forever upon this land—yes it is indeed a wondrous thing. From where will you find the power to accomplish such wonders?”

“Perhaps you will need to ascend to the heavens as I did at Mount Sinai? Perhaps you will need to perform such miracles as we saw at the Sea of Reeds?”

“But no. We have done that already. It is all here, in the teachings I have given you in writing and in person.”

“And I know you. For you, it is not wondrous. I know from whom you come and I know the love G-d has placed within you. That is where you must look to find this power.”

For this thing is very much within you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it. (Deut. 30:14)

Millennia passed, and through triumphs and travails the people of Moses were still living the divine teachings, but in lands not their own. Alive, but struggling, as a strong, but weary laborer about to finally collapse beneath an unbearable load.

The Baal Shem Tov came to revive their souls. He taught:

“Serve G-d with love! Serve Him with joy! Awaken the essence of the soul within you, a divine living being that cannot allow itself to be torn away from G-d, that only desires to be always at one with Him. Because this is who you truly are.”

If you were there in the presence of the Baal Shem Tov, if you saw him dance and sing with his inner circle, if you saw the unconditional love he had for the simplest human being, your soul was awakened and your heart

throbbed with the joy that radiated from his face.

But if you were never there, then what were you supposed to do?

With this his disciples wrestled, as they worked together to spread his message to all Jews in every place they could reach.

Until a Lithunian prodigy came and joined them, a young but erudite, methodical yet impassioned Jew from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, one for whom the vast and rigorous seas of the Talmud, the sublime heavens of the Kabbalah, and the solid earth upon which we live together were all one world. And after many years of guiding and counseling tens of thousands of Jews in the path of the Baal Shem Tov, he composed a small book for the common man and

woman; a manual for accomplishing this wonder that Moses and the Baal Shem Tov told us we held within ourselves.

We call that book “the Tanya.” Its guidance is simple:

Fix a time each day to study the words of inner Torah and ponder who G-d is, what an awesome universe He has made, who you really are, and what is the relationship between your soul and the One Above.

Don't let your mind wander. Learn to be still and to enter deeply into your thoughts. Where the mind will go, the heart will follow—but only if your mind is fixed firmly in that place.

And then call out to Him in joyful prayer that He will open your heart to awe and love for Him. Experience your soul. Experience who you are. Day after day.

At those moments when you feel tugged away from your true desires, you will only need to remind yourself, “No, this is not me. The real me cannot be separated from my G-d even for a moment. Why should I be a fool and listen to a voice that is not me?”

Will it be without struggle?

No. For one thing, without struggle nothing has changed. The struggle itself is evidence that a great shift is taking place, that you are drawing the heavens down upon the earth.

But principally because the moment of struggle, the Tanya teaches, has an inestimable preciousness all its own. It is the moment when you come in closest contact with your inner soul. Yet more: It is an eternal moment when you touch the divine in its raw essence and draw that into your reality.

But to win that struggle on every round, every day—so that you remain who you truly are in the things you do, the words you speak, and the thoughts you choose to dwell upon—this is very much within you. It is who you truly are. EM

Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, a senior editor at Chabad.org, is the author of Bringing Heaven Down to Earth and more recently Wisdom to Heal the Earth. To subscribe to regular updates of Rabbi Freeman's writing or purchase his books, visit Chabad.org. Follow him on Facebook @RabbiTzviFreeman.

Tzvi Freeman

redeMPtion And tiMe

Y. Jacobson

At the surface, it seems baffling, but upon deeper reflection, it contains an extraordinary meditation on how we live our lives and manage our time.

The Jewish calendar has twelve lunar months. The first day of each month is known as Rosh Chodesh (the head of the month); the first day of the year (the first day of the first month of the year) is known as Rosh Hashanah (the head of the year.)

Says the Midrash:

“When G-d chose His world, He established ‘heads of months’ and ‘heads of years.’ When G-d chose Jacob and his children, the Jewish people, He established the ‘head of the month of redemption’ (the first day of the month of Nissan, the month of the Exodus).”

What does this Midrash mean? What does it mean “when G-d chose His world?” Why does the Midrash not say, “when G-d created His world?”

And what does choosing a world have to do with the establishment of the head of a month and the heads of a year? And what does the Midrash mean when it says that “when G-d chose Jacob and his children, He established the Head of the month of redemption?”

Delineating time into months and years is based on the astronomical lunar and solar orbits. The moon completes its orbit after one month. The sun completes its orbit after a year. What does any of this have to do with G-d “choosing His world,” or “choosing Jacob and his children?”

An Address to High School Girls

On January 16, 1964 (2 Shevat, 5724), the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) addressed a group of teenage girls, the graduating class of a New York Jewish girls’ high school, Beth Rivkah. He offered them a most marvelous insight into this Midrash. This profound perspective can teach us volumes about how to view a one-liner in Midrash, and how to speak to the hearts of teenage girls.

Aristotle said that time was the greatest teacher who killed all his students. There is no “teacher” like time. What we learn through time and aging is unparalleled by any class or teacher. The experience of life is the greatest teacher. The saying goes:

When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience ends up with the money; the man with the money ends up with an experience.

And yet the clock stops for nobody. “Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings,” John Updike said. You may be sleeping, sipping a coffee, surfing the web, or getting angry at your boss or your spouse, the clock is ticking away. How do we deal with the merciless reality of time?

There are three ways, suggests the Midrash. There are three experiences of time: depressing time, meaningful time, and redemptive time. You choose in which timezone you will breathe.

For some, time is just an endless flow, a shapeless blob, a random stream that never

ceases. A day comes and a day goes, and then another day comes and goes. Each day is the same as the day before, and they all add up to nothing.

Sometimes you watch people who allow their days and years to pass without goals. Every day is an invitation to squander yet another 24 hours until it too will bite the dust. If the boredom gets to you, you find ways to escape and dull the void. This is an empty time: time devoid of any theme. Time as it is on its own, without human initiative and creativity. Shapeless and formless. One set of 24 hours is indistinguishable from another set of 24 hours.

Comes the Midrash and says, “When G-d chose His world, He established ‘heads of months’ and ‘heads of years.’” For the world

Yosef

to become a chosen place, a desirable habitat, a place worth living in, a place that G-d not only created but chose, we must grant the endless flow of time the dignity of purpose. Every day ought to have a productive objective, every month—a meaningful goal, every year—a dynamic rhythm. The world G-d chose and desired was one in which humanity learns to confer meaning on time, to utilize it for constructive and beneficial endeavors. A meaningful life is a life in which every day is filled with meaningful choices and experiences, utilized to promote goodness, righteousness, and justice.

This is what it means to choose your world and choose your life, to appreciate that G-d chose this world. There is meaning and purpose in each moment. You can view life as random and valueless, or you can see life as a gift, and view time as priceless, something I ought to cultivate in the fullest way. I choose to invest all my energy, creativity, and passion into each moment; and for me, each day is an invitation to deeper growth and awareness.

So “When G-d chose His world, He established ‘heads of months’ and ‘heads of years.’” For time to be utilized purposefully, every month must have a “head,” which gives the month its tone and direction. Every year must have a “head,” Rosh Hashanah, the time to put into focus the year that passed and the year ahead. For time to be used productively, it must be delineated. I must take note of sunrise and sunset, of a new month and a new year. Each presents me with a specific energy, calling, and opportunity.

You can live a productive life, mark your days with worthy objectives. Your life has rhythm. You have a morning, a night, a lunch break, a weekend, and a vacation.

But you are still confined within the realm of a mortal, finite and frail universe. As one wise man said, Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them. Or: Time is a storm in which we are all lost; time is free, but it’s priceless; you can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.

Within the restricted structure of our bodies, life span, and circumstances, we can use our time productively. Yet, we can’t free ourselves from the prison of mortality. Even

when I work hard and use my time well, it is still cruel to me. It ages me. At any moment something can happen which will shake up and destroy my entire structure and rhythm.

Here is where the Midrash opens us up to another dimension of time, and this is where the Jewish story is introduced into history. “When G-d chose Jacob and his children He established the head of the month of Redemption.” G-d gave us the ability to liberate and redeem ourselves from the natural, mortal, and finite reality. He allowed us to align our posture with Divine infinity; not just to be productive with our time, but to confer upon each moment transcendence, to grant it the resonance of eternity, to liberate it and ourselves from the shackles of mortality.

You can be productive with your time. You can use it to shovel the snow, mow the lawn, fix the garage, read a good book, shop in Costco, enhance your computer speed, sell a building, cook a gourmet meal, and help society. This is worthwhile. But you are capable of more: You can make each moment Divine, elevating it to the realm of the sacred, where each moment, hour, day, week, month, and year become infused with G-dliness and are thus transformed into eternity. You can allow your time to become a conduit for the timeless.

"When G-d chose Jacob and his children He established the head of the month of Redemption.” This is the month of Nissan, the month when we were set free of Egyptian bondage and were empowered to free ourselves from every form of bondage. Torah and Mitzvahs make our time not only productive but Divine.

When you align your time rhythm with the Divine, realizing that every moment of time is an opportunity to connect with the infinite light vibrating through your body and the cosmos; when you use your time to study G-d’s Torah, to connect to G-d, to perform a mitzvah, and to live in the Divine consciousness of oneness, your time is not only productive, but it is redemptive, uninhibited by the shackles of nature finitude. You redeem and transform your time—by aligning it with the divine blueprint for life.

When the sun rises, and I declare “Shema Yisroel” to align my posture with Divine

oneness—the moment of sunrise is now etched in eternity. When the sun of Friday is about to set and I kindle the Shabbat lights, it is a moment transformed into transcendent peacefulness. When I take a moment to do a favor for another person, for tuning into the love of the universe, for studying Torah or praying, I elevate the moment into transcendence.

In the words of the Tanya (ch. 25), "In the higher reality, this union (between the soul and G-d when we perform a mitzvah) is eternal, for G-d and His will transcend time... Only here below is the union within the limits of time."

Each of us must choose in which “time zone” we will live. Do I live in a “depressing time,” letting my days and nights pass without meaning? Do I elevate my days into worthwhile experiences? Or, in my ultimate calling, do I turn each day into a redemptive experience, into a conduit for infinity?

The Rebbe said one more thing to these girls about their academic studies. Some of us study the sciences and see them merely as interesting data, raw facts. However, much of humanity has come to appreciate that when we study biology, physics, history, or math it must be with a productive and meaningful purpose—to make the world a better place, to enhance life on our planet, and to promote justice and compassion.

Yet, our ultimate calling is to see all of our studies, all branches of wisdom, as an instrument to transform our world and our lives into an abode for the Divine infinite reality, to infuse all aspects of our lives with true and timeless meaning, with everlasting love and holiness, by revealing that ultimately, we are all one, and everything is part of that oneness. EM

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (YY) Jacobson is one of America’s premier Jewish scholars in Torah and Jewish mysticism. He is a passionate and mesmerizing communicator of Judaism today, culling his ideas from the entire spectrum of Jewish thought and making them relevant to contemporary audiences. Rabbi Jacobson founded and serves as dean of TheYeshiva.net.

jewish thought Why PAssover?

Jonathan Sacks

Passover is a night of questions, but there is one we do not ask, and it is significant. Why was there a Passover in the first place? Why the years of suffering and slavery? Israel was redeemed. It regained its freedom. It returned to the land its ancestors had been promised centuries before. But why the necessity of exile? Why did G-d not arrange for Abraham or Isaac or Jacob simply to inherit the land of Canaan? If the Israelites not gone down to Egypt in the days of Joseph, there would have been no suffering and no need for redemption. Why Passover?

The question is unavoidable, given the terms of the biblical narrative. The Torah indicates that there was nothing accidental about the events leading up to Passover. Centuries before, Abraham had been told by G-d in the ‘covenant between the pieces,’ ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and ill-treated for four hundred years’ (Genesis 15:13). We make repeated reference in the course of the Haggadah to the fact that the whole sequence of events was part of a pre-ordained plan. G-d ‘had already calculated the end’ of suffering. When Jacob went down to Egypt he was, we say, “forced by divine decree.”

G-d Himself told Jacob, ‘Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there’ (Genesis 46:3) without giving him an intimation of the sufferings his children would endure. The Sages say that at the end of his life, when Jacob wanted to tell his children what would happen to them ‘at the end of days’ the gift of prophecy was taken from him. Without knowing it, the Israelites were part of a narrative that had been scripted long before.

A Midrash – one of the few places in which the Sages expressed their disquiet about this strange stratagem of providence – expresses the problem very acutely:

The Holy One blessed be He sought to bring about the decree He had spoken of to Abraham, that ‘your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own.’ So He arranged that Jacob should love Joseph more than his other sons, that the brothers would be jealous and hate Joseph, that they would

sell him to the Ishmaelites who would bring him down to Egypt, and that Jacob would hear that Joseph was still alive and living there. The result was that Jacob and the tribes went to Egypt and became enslaved.

Rabbi Tanhuma said: To what can this be compared? To a herdsman who wishes to place the yoke on a cow, but the cow refuses to have it placed on her. What does the herdsman do? He takes a calf from the cow and leads it to the field where ploughing is to take place. The calf begins to cry for its mother. The cow, hearing the calf cry, rushes to the field, and there, while its attention is distracted and it is thinking only of its child, the yoke is placed upon it. (Tanhuma, Vayeshev, 4)

The script G-d writes for His people is sometimes circuitous and terrifying. The Sages applied to it the pointed phrase, ‘How awesome is G-d in His dealings with humankind’ (Psalm 66:5). Why did He want His people to experience slavery? Why was exile in Egypt the necessary prelude to their life as a sovereign nation in the Promised Land?

The Book of Jonah tells a strange story. Jonah has been asked by G-d to convey a

warning to the people of Nineveh. Their ways are corrupt; the city will be destroyed unless they repent. Jonah flees from his mission, and in the course of the book we learn why. He knew, he says, that the people of Nineveh, hearing the words of the prophet, would repent and be forgiven. For Jonah, this was unjust. When people do wrong, they should suffer the consequences and be punished. This was particularly so in the case of Nineveh, a city of the Assyrians who were to be the cause of so much suffering to Israel. G-d’s forgiveness conflicted with Jonah’s sense of retributive justice. G-d decides to teach Jonah a moral lesson. He sends him a gourd to give him shade from the burning sun. The next day He sends a worm that makes the gourd wither and die. Jonah is plunged into suicidal depression. G-d then says to him:

‘You have been concerned about this gourd, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?’ Jonah 4:10-11

G-d teaches Jonah to care by giving him

something and then taking it away. Loss teaches us to value things, though usually too late. What we have, and then lose, we do not take for granted. The religious vision is not about seeing things that are not there. It is about seeing the things that are there and always were, but which we never noticed, or paid attention to. Faith is a form of attention. It is a sustained meditation on the miraculousness of what is, because it might not have been. What we lose and are given back we learn to cherish in a way we would not have done had we never lost it in the first place. Faith is about not taking things for granted.

This is the key to understanding a whole series of narratives in the book of Genesis. Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel long to have children but discover that they are infertile. Only through G-d’s intervention are they able to conceive. Abraham goes through the trial of the binding of Isaac, only to discover that G-d, who has asked him to sacrifice his child, says ‘Stop’ at the last moment. This is how the covenantal family learns that having children is not something that merely happens. It is how the people of Israel learned, at the dawn of their history, never to

take children for granted. Jewish continuity, the raising of new generations of Jews, is not natural, inevitable, a process that takes care of itself. It needs constant effort and attention. The same is true of freedom.

Freedom in the biblical sense – responsible self-restraint – is not natural. To the contrary, the natural order in human societies, as it is in the animal kingdom, is that the strong prey on and dominate the weak. Nothing is rarer or harder to achieve than a society of equal dignity for all. Merely to conceive it requires a massive disengagement from nature. The Torah tells us how this was achieved, through the historical experience of a people who would ever afterward be the carriers of G-d’s message to humankind.

Israel had to lose its freedom before it could cherish it. Only what we lose do we fully pay attention to. Israel had to suffer the experience of slavery and degradation before it could learn, know, and feel intuitively that there is something morally wrong about oppression. Nor could it, or any other people, carry this message in perpetuity without reliving it every year, tasting the harsh tang of the bread of affliction and the bitterness of slavery. Thus was created, at the birth of the nation, a longing for freedom that was at the very core of its memory and identity.

Had Israel achieved immediate nationhood in the patriarchal age without the experience of exile and persecution, it would – like so many other nations in history – have taken freedom for granted; and when freedom is taken for granted, it has already begun to be lost. Israel became the people conceived in slavery so that it would never cease to long for liberty – and know that liberty is anything but natural. It requires constant vigilance, unceasing moral struggle. EM

Rabbi Dr. Sir Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, was the former Chief Rabbi of the UK and the Commonwealth and a member of the House of Lords. He was a leading academic and respected world expert on Judaism. He was the author of several books and thousands of articles, appeared regularly on television and radio, and spoke at engagements around the world.

future tense

MOSHIACH MUSINGS

Passover relates to the ultimate redemption. For just as all later exiles are rooted in the Egyptian exile, so, too, the redemption from Egypt is the comprehensive root for all later redemptions, including the Messianic one. In fact, this ultimate redemption is in many respects similar to the one from Egypt, as it is written, “As in the days of your going out from Egypt, I will show them wondrous things” (Michah 7:15). Indeed, the very purpose of relating the story of the exodus from Egypt is to awaken and strengthen the faith of Israel in general, and faith in the coming of Moshiach in particular. For this faith itself will bring about the actual redemption, just as it happened originally that “Our ancestors were freed from Egypt by virtue of (their) faith.”

Consideration of our present condition, noting the ever-increasing darkness and troubles of the exile of each day seeming worse than the preceding one, may lead to becoming despondent and to lose faith, Heaven forbid. That is why we begin the Hagadah (the recitation of the story of the exodus) with the paragraph “This is the bread of affliction...,” in which we state: “Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat; whoever is in need, let him come and celebrate Passover...” By reciting this, we are not only inviting strangers, but also addressing ourselves:

The Almighty beckons each one of us to sense our state of “hunger” and “need” in the great darkness surrounding us, and to ask G-d for relief. In turn, G-d assures us that He will then provide us not only with the substance to “eat” but also the possibility to “celebrate Passover,” thus to be led (as stated in the conclusion of that paragraph) to the “Land of Israel” and to become truly “free people.”

WhAt's the rush?

Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman

QThe way the story goes, the Israelites left Egypt in such a rush, the dough didn’t have time enough to rise. After the whole story, why couldn’t they just spend a few extra minutes to let the bread rise?

The answer is: they weren’t running from the Egyptians, they were running from themselves. Two centuries of slavery had taken their toll on the Israelites’ spirit. They had forgotten their illustrious past as children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, pioneers of a path of spirituality, ethics, and higher morals. The corruption and depravity of Egyptian society had slowly crept into the Israelite mentality, and they assimilated many of its pagan ideals into their own. They were slaves to Egypt, not just in body, but in mind as well.

It came to a point where their unique identity was almost lost. Suddenly they realized that the legacy of Abraham could be lost forever, and the message of hope that the Israelites were to bring the world would not be delivered. Only then did they cry out for help. On the brink of point of no return, they called out to G-d.

Sometimes we have to hit “rock bottom” in order to be shaken up and realize that we can’t go on like this, things have to change –we have to change. Coasting through life and relying on various crutches and addictions to survive reaches its limit at some point. If we don’t make a change, things could start to unravel and we risk losing everything –ask any addict who hit this point with their addiction.

At the point, we have to act fast. Once we recognize the problem, it has to be dealt with immediately, before that moment of clarity passes by and we slip back into selfjustification and old habits. But we can’t do it alone. We’re too lost to help ourselves. We have to call for help. Someone from the outside, someone with clarity, has to help. But that person can only really help if we are truly willing to let go of the crutches and move on – to escape the person we’ve been until now in order to heal.

That’s why matzah is the crux of what the Exodus is all about. The children

of Israel had to make a hasty retreat from Egypt. Egypt and its lowliness had a hold on them as powerful as an addiction. They had to first get out of Egypt in order to get Egypt out of themselves. To delay would be deadly. Once they had realized the problem, if they would then have hesitated, it could have spelled the end for them—they might have sunk to the point of no return.

We all have our addictions, whether to harmful substances, poisonous relationships, toxic habits or negative ideologies. Passover is a like a spiritual-mental detox retreat, where the spirit of liberty calls upon us to free ourselves from our personal Egypt. The matzah reminds us that the first step towards freedom is to run away. No hesitations: make a sudden and complete exodus from the you that was, and march through the desert towards the you that you can be.

This touches on the idea of what freedom is really all about. Many define freedom as doing whatever you want, with no rules or limits whatsoever. But is that really freedom? Am I not then just a slave to my whims and fancies? What if my fancies are not really coming from me? Maybe I have desires that were placed in my head by others. Am I truly free if I follow those desires? What if I have instinctive drives that are harmful to myself? Can you call me free if I am bound by those drives? What about compulsive or addictive behavior? Bad habits? Can't you also be a slave to what you want?

Judaism defines freedom very differently. True freedom is the ability to express who you really are, to continuously grow and explore all levels of your personality and your spiritual potential. EM

Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman is the Senior Rabbi of the Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario. You can Ask the Rabbi at jrcc.org or fax to 416.222.7812. To meet with Rabbi Zaltzman in person, feel free to call 416.222.7105 to book an appointment. Appointments are generally available on Wednesday evenings after 7pm.

Rebbitzin Chiena Zaltzman is also available for private consultations by appointment on Wednesday evenings from 9 to 10pm by calling 416.222.7105.

За три дня до Песаха мы празднуем День

Рождения Ребе.

11 Нисана, День Рождения Ребе, является

самым счастливым днем для нашего поколения. Это день, когда Вс-вышний послал душу Ребе в наш мир. Ребе, учение которого изменило и продолжает изменять жизнь на всей планете. В чем особенность этого великого человека? В 1950-м году Ребе возглавил Любавичское движение и сначала старался поднять дух мирового еврейства, которое всего за несколько лет до этого пережило Холокост. Евреи были разбиты, подавлены до невозможности. Ребе сказал, что нет смысла оборачиваться назад, мы должны идти дальше и делать свою работу: готовить себя и готовить мир к скорому приходу Мошиаха. Ребе научил целое поколение - тысячи и тысячи людей - думать позитивно, искать положительное во всем, даже в том, что кажется абсолютно негативным. Ребе научил нас осознавать, что каждый еврей является лидером, в каждом из нас имеется Б-жественная душа, и поэтому каждый обладает бесконечным потенциалом. В каждом из нас имеется бесконечный источник света и добра.

Вдохновленные Ребе, по разным странам разлетелись его посланники, и в настоящее время 6 000 посланни- ков работают в каждом уголке земного шара, где живут евреи...

The article above is excerpted from the Russian edition of Exodus Magazine. To subscribe, please visit exodusmagazine.org or call 416.222.7105.

книгa

основной труд философии хасидизма

Класс ведет рабби Йосеф И. Зальцман На русском языке

28 Townsgate Dr., Thornhill

или Zoom: www.zoom.us/my/jrcchq

ID: 416-222-7105

"ТАНИЯ"

CANDLE LIGHTING TIMES

PURIM IN VENICE

On Tuesday, March 7, over 500 people joined the JRCC’s annual Grand Purim Banquet. This year’s event took on the theme of “Purim in Venice.” The cuisine, decor and costumes all took on a nostalgic Venetian theme, which gave an added air of excitement that fit well with the out-of-the-box nature of the Purim holiday. Following the traditional Megillah reading, the evening featured a three-course dinner, open bar, entertainment, including Israel singer Shlomo Nizin, live music, and a donor appreciation presentation. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our community and our heritage together, especially during this special year of unity known as Hakhel, which happens once every seven years. It was an exuberant evening of delightful cuisine, fine spirits, entertainment, and a general jovial atmosphere befitting the Purim festival and a celebration of community unity.

COMMUNITY PURIM EVENTS

On the eve of Purim, on March 6, over 1,500 people participated in simultaneous community Purim parties at 8 JRCC Branches and other location in the GTA. Each of the parties included a Megillah reading, music, refreshments and a door prize for every child arriving in costume. All of the parties were warm and lively community events that focused on the children, and some included special entertainment. In addition, the week before Purim saw over a dozen Purim-themed events for children and teens.

HAMENTASH BAKE-OFF

In advance of Purim, a Hamentach Bake-Off was hosted by JRCC East Thornhill, JRCC West Thornhill and the JRCC S Richmond Hill & Maple. Participating children got to connect with the Purim holiday hands-on by making an adorable Purim-related craft and baking delicious hamentashen pastries using the fillings of their choice, both traditional and creative.

UNDER FIRE

On Wednesday, March 15, the JRCC hosted a Chabad emissary from Ukraine who gave a first-hand account of Jewish community life during a time of war. Rabbi Yossi Wolff, of Kherson Chabad, reported on life under fire in war-torn Ukraine, where communicates and families have been torn apart by the upheaval. Participants were moved by the dramatic stories and tragic circumstances, and inspired by the perseverance required to survive both physically and spiritually under such trying circumstances. Participants left with deeper insights into the nature of the reality in Ukraine, a newfound appreciation of our security and freedom that should never be taken for granted, and a motivation to help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine however we can – by engaging in Torah study and good deeds for their merit, and making charitable donations to help support them in their time of need.

Woodbridge Concord

Hebrew School and Bat Mitzvah Club students were awarded with a grand trip to GYGO for studying in their own time for the international JewQ Torah championship and passing all three tests.

JRCC

Faces of the Community

MOSHIACH SEUDAH

THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 7PM

Initiated by the Baal Shem Tov, it is customary to end Passover with a feast dedicated to the imminent redemption.

At your local JRCC branch.

www.jrcc.org/Pesach

FARBRENGEN 11 Nissan

SUNDAY, APRIL 2

8:00PM

JRCC Concord 411 Confederation Pkwy., Unit 14

YIZKOR SERVICES

Yizkor, a special memorial prayer for the departed, is recited in the synagogue four times a year, following the Torah reading on the last day of Passover, on the second day of Shavuot, on Shemini Atzeret and on Yom Kippur.

Yizkor will be said at all JRCC branches on Thursday, April 13, 2023 at approximately 11:45 a.m.

EUGENE SHENDEREY

We already met several years ago, but you have interesting information about the influence of Jews on the development of sports in the Soviet Union. Let's talk about it.

First of all, I must say that I am an expert coach of the International Gymnastics Federation for men and women, and have been a coach of the Ukrainian national team, the USSR national team, the Italian and Canadian national gymnastics teams. With the end of the war, anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union did not disappear; on the contrary, it escalated. In Kyiv (and in other cities) there was a quota for Jews entering a university. At the entrance exams, Jewish applicants were put in a separate row and given tasks that were impossible to complete. When a Jewish boy went home after school (and usually he was dressed better than the rest, since Jewish parents tried to give their children, if possible, the best of what was available), passing hooligans insulted him and severely beat him just because he was Jewish. This encouraged Jewish children to engage in sports. Going abroad for a Jew was possible only if he achieved the highest sports results. The government was forced to let the Jewish champions go abroad: after all, say, Botvinnik in chess could not be replaced by anyone else. But besides chess, there were also Jewish wrestlers, boxers, weightlifters, fencers, gymnasts, etc.

I think that everyone is familiar with the sculpture by the famous Soviet sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich called “Let's Forge Swords into Plowshares.” It was based on the verse of the Prophet Isaiah, who wrote: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into sickles: people will not raise the sword against the people, and they will no longer learn to fight.” The sculpture depicts the figure of a man who forges a plowshare from a sword, symbolizing man's desire to end war and turn destructive weapons into tools for the benefit of humanity. On December 4, 1959 a copy of the sculpture was presented as a gift to the UN from the USSR. The sculpture, dedicated to the idea of world peace, quickly became famous.

I remember well the stamp with the image of this sculpture, popular in the Soviet Union.

Yes, but few people know that for the subject of the sculpture, the artist chose the figure of the Soviet wrestler Boris Gurevich, a nine-time champion of the Soviet Union, Europe, the world and the Olympic Games. No one could have thought that a Jew was represented in the world-famous image of a fighter for peace. Boris Gurevich and I have been friends since childhood. During the war, suffering from constant hunger, he and I used to grab apples from the market stalls on the run. At the railway station we dragged coal from the platforms in order to then sell to buy bread. Boris finished only four years of school and went to work as a loader to feed his sick mother. And it gave him tremendous physical training. All his life he observed a strict regime: he categorically did not drink alcohol (he came to all friendly celebrations with a bottle of sparkling water), did not smoke, and went to bed no later than 10:30. Hearing the word “Jew” in his direction, Boris immediately entered into fight mode, and even then his offenders got it right. At first, Boris played for the Dynamo Kyiv society, and later moved to CSKA - the Central Sports Club of the Army, where he was awarded the rank of major.

I want to tell you about another Jewish athlete, Jacob Grigoryevich Punkin. He was a Soviet wrestler, 1952 Olympic lightweight champion, USSR featherweight champion from 1949-1951 and lightweight from 1954-1955. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. The first athlete, a native of Ukraine, who became an Olympic champion. During the war, as a teenager, he ended up in Auschwitz. Jacob had a typical Jewish appearance, not to mention circumcision, which the Germans noticed. So, the Russian soldiers saved the boy from the Nazis, hiding him under the bunks and covering him with all sorts of rags. When Auschwitz was liberated, he weighed only 38 kg, and the doctor told him: “If you want to survive, go engage in sports.” He went into wrestling because there were no wrestlers in his super lightweight division. As a result of his experience in the camps, the constant fear of being discovered by the Nazis, he developed an obsessive nervous tic. His body and arms twitched in one direction, and his head in the other. Oddly enough, in the future this shortcoming helped him become a great wrestler: his opponents, seeing that Jacob was moving his body in a certain direction, would begin responding in that direction. It served as a decoy as he attacked in the opposite direction. And he often won. In 1952, in Helsinki, he became the Olympic lightweight wrestling champion. In fact, he was a sick person: after all, this nervous tic is associated with a psychological disorder, from which he was never freed. And all his life he pushed himself to incredible physical exertion, overcoming his condition in order to defeat the disease and his opponents on his way to the gold medal.

11 Nissan Farbrengen Celebrating the 121th birthday of the Lubavither Rebbe

Exodus Magazine Holiday Companion

PASSOVER

Wednesday, April 5 to Thursday, April 13, 2023

What is Passover?

Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. It is observed by avoiding bread and other leavened foods and highlighted by the Seder meals that include four cups of wine, eating matzah and bitter herbs, and retelling the story of the Exodus. The name comes from the fact that the houses of the Israelites were “passed over” during the plague of the firstborn, and also reflects the notion that the Exodus is connected with the supernatural.

Pre-Holiday to-do list

• Shop for the holiday needs

• Cook the Seder and Holiday foods

• Clean the house for Passover, especially the kitchen, from any bread crumbs and non Kosher-for-Pesach products

• Buy Matzah and wine

• Sell your Chametz before April 4

• Make Yizkor plans

• Eiruv Tavshilin on April 5

Get Over Your Self

As the name of the festival implies, the focus of the spiritual work and inner awareness of the festival has to do with passing over, specifically the transcendence of the limitations of self. These limitations can express themselves in different ways – things we are told by society, things we were told as children, and things we tell ourselves. The way to overcome these limitations is to let go of ego, to experience freedom, and rediscover ourselves as free beings. Passover comes around once a year to give us a boost in this area, which is actually a daily part of our life’s journey.

Passover Resources

JRCC Website: Enjoy dozens of articles and videos on the JRCC Passover minisite at jrcc.org/Passover. Content for children at jrcc.org/Kids

JRCC Haggadah: A comprehensive guide and walk-through of Passover preparations (cleaning, selling chametz etc.) in three languages (Hebrew-Russian-English). To receive a copy, contact our office or visit jrccbookstore.org.

Shabbat and Holiday Candle Lighting

Shabbat and Holiday candles are lit by women and girls – see JRCC calendar for candlelighting times.

On the second evening of consecutive holy days, light from a pre-existing flame. Light a 48-hour candle before the onset of the festival to be used for this purpose.

Eruv Tavshilin on Wednesday, April 5

In order to permit the preparation of food for Shabbat during the festival when Shabbat immediately follows a festival, an “eruv tavshilin” must be prepared prior to the festival. Consult your siddur (prayerbook) or visit jrcc.org for details.

We’re here to help

The JRCC is here to assist with all your Passover needs. You can join a community seder in your neighborhood at one of the JRCC’s branches, also order a “Seder to Go” package, purchase matzah, and sell your chametz. For assistance in making your Passover plans or any other assistance, visit jrcc.org/Pesach or contact the JRCC.

All times displayed in this guide are for the Greater Toronto Area.

Chametz vs. Matzah

Why is eating Matzah on Passover so fundamental? Chametz and Matzah are almost the same substance, containing the same ingredients of flour and water. The one key difference is that while Chametz bread rises, filling itself with hot air, the Matzah stays flat and humble. Chametz represents that swelling of ego, is the greatest form of enslavement. When we celebrate the Festival of Freedom, as Passover is also known, we disavow Chametz as a vehicle for eradicating ego. Because the only way to truly and freely connect to our Creator and to one another is with humility, to ensure our egos don’t get in the way.

The Passover Seder

When:

Wednesday, April 5 and Thursday, April 6, after dark.

How:

Follow your Haggadah step-by-step and have a great time!

i The JRCC Haggadah has a very informative introduction with clear explanations and instructions about the Seder. To prepare, you can also visit jrcc.org/Seder before the holiday for fascinating articles, useful information, and practical tutorials.

No Chametz

The Torah forbids us to own or possess any Chametz throughout the week of Passover. Here are the basic steps to getting rid of Chametz:

CLEAN IT

When: In the weeks preceding Passover Thoroughly check and clean any place in your home, office or car that might possibly contain traces of food.

SELL IT

When: by Tuesday, April 4

The non-perishable Chametz products you want to store and keep for after Passover should be sold so they are not technically in your possession for the duration of the holiday. Use the form or visit jrcc.org/sellchametz

SEARCH FOR IT

When: Tuesday, April 4, after dark Search for crumbs and remnants of Chametz that may have escaped your clean-up operation. A special blessing is recited before the search, you can find it in your Haggadah (JRCC Haggadah page 2).

STOP EATING IT

When: Wednesday, April 5, before 11:09am After this time, you can no longer eat any Chametz. Any Chametz left over should be disposed of.

BURN IT

When: Wednesday, April 5, before 12:15pm Burn the Chametz you found during the search.

NULLIFY IT

When: Wednesday, April 5, before 12:15pm

Nullify any Chametz in your property that may have been overlooked by reciting a unique passage, which can be found in your Haggadah (JRCC Haggadah page 3).

i Learn more about the prohibition of possessing Chametz and lots of resources for all the above at jrcc.org/chametz

The Seder in Short

The Passover Seder contains the observance of many biblical and rabbinical mitzvot, including: eating matzah, eating maror (bitter herbs), drinking four cups of wine, relating the story of the Exodus to our children, and reclining as a symbol of freedom.

The most essential parts of the Passover Seder are:

1. Telling the Story of the Exodus

2. Eating the Matzah (27 grams)

3. Eating the Marror bitter herb (18 grams)

4. Drinking the Four Cups of Wine

5. Feeling Free – reclining consuming the wine and Matza

6. Celebration and gratitude to G-d

From Chaos to Order

The phrase “Passover Seder” is actually an oxymoron: The word “Passover” means to skip, to pass over. The word “Seder” means order. So the Passover Seder is actually about bringing chaos into order. The supernatural nature of the Passover energy, reflected in the astounding miracles that accompanied the Exodus, seems somewhat out of reach, disconnected from our lives today. The fifteen steps that comprise the order of the Passover Seder are designed to bring that lofty energy down to earth so that we can assimilate it into our minds, hearts and lives as we are today – empowering us to live a life that is both supernatural and grounded at the same time.

The Short, Long Road

When the Israelites finally left Egypt during the Exodus, they took the long way. (This is even before taking the really long way of forty years in the desert, and then taking the really, really long way of two thousand years in exile.)

The Baal Shem Tov teaches that there are no shortcuts when it comes to radical transformations. The dramatic stories of “overnight success” portrayed in Hollywood and Silicon Valley are actually the result of many years of hard work and perseveranceDo not be deluded – there are no short cuts. When it comes to all of life’s endeavors, especially our personal growth and spiritual pursuits, we should not attempt a sudden about-turn; instead, there should be a gradual progression. A sudden about-turn will not be maintained and eventually will lead to regression.

As the Alter Rebbe points out in Tanya, the only short cuts are the ones that don’t actually reach the destination. Rather than taking the illusory short and easy path, which is actually long because it never gets us where we want to go, we should seek the long and truthful path, which is actually short because it eventually takes us where we need to be.

Sale of Chametz Form

SUBMIT BY: TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2023 AT 9PM

Sell your chametz online at jrcc.org/sellchametz

I (We):

FULL NAME(S)

[Head(s) of the Household] Hereby authorize Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman to dispose of all chametz that may be in my (our) possession wherever it may be — at home, at my (our) place of business, or elsewhere — in accordance with the requirements of Jewish Law as incorporated in the special contract for the sale of chametz.

HOME ADDRESS

Double Dipping

At the Passover Seder, what is the inner significance of dipping the vegetable in salt water and the bitter herb in charoset?

The Israelites in Egypt suffered greatly. And while we can never fully understand the meaning of suffering, the Kabbalists have taught that sometimes we suffer in one lifetime in order to correct something from a past life. This was the case with the Jews in Egypt.

The mystics teach that the Israelites in Egypt were reincarnations of two previous generations: the generation of the Great Flood and the generation that built the Tower of Babel. This is why we see clear parallels between them. Just like the generation of the Flood, Israelites were drowned in the Nile River. And just like the builders of the Tower of Babel, the Israelites had to make bricks and build buildings. Reincarnation is a spiritual system by which people can correct past wrongs. In the times of the Flood, people were violent, dishonest and corrupt. Their sins were primarily against their fellow human beings. In the times of the Tower of Babel, however, they treated each other kindly. Their mistake was that they believed that humanity could exist without a higher cause. The purpose of their tower was to take over the heavens and supplant Divine power with human power.

These two mistakes are still around today. Some believe that you can be a good person without being religious. As long as you are nice to people, as long as you don’t hurt anyone, you are a good person and don’t need a higher authority in your life. Others believe that as long as you pray to G-d and follow religious rituals, it doesn’t matter how you treat other people. You can be religious without being good.

Both are mistaken. Being religious without being good makes no sense at all. If you love G-d, then you love His children. Every human is made in G-d’s image, and so you cannot honor G-d if you dishonor humanity. You can’t pray to the G-d that tells you to love your fellow as yourself and then treat your fellow like dirt. But you also can’t be truly good without G-d, because there can be no such thing as absolute good without an absolute source. If morality is relative, then it can be defined however I want it to be defined. There can be no objective definition of right and wrong. Without absolute morality, as history has shown us, anything can be justified.

The Israelites were the first to recognize that living a Divine life means living a good life, and that in order to know what “good” is you need G-d. Unlike the generation of the Flood, who disregarded human decency, and unlike the generation of the Tower of Babel, who rejected Divine authority, the Israelites survived Egypt to establish a new society based on G-d-given goodness.

BUSINESS ADDRESS

At the Seder table, we have a reminder of these two misguided generations: we dip the vegetable in the salt water that commemorates the floodwaters, and the bitter herb in the charoset that represents the bricks that built the tower. We have seen the tragic consequences of dividing between G-d and good. We must ensure that the two never part.

The Intermediate Days

When: Shabbat, April 8 to Tuesday, April 11

Chol Hamoed (literally, “the weekday of the holiday”) refers to the “intermediate period” of the festivals between the beginning and ending holy days. These days are a fusion of the mundane (“chol) and the sacred (“moed”). These are not holy days like Shabbat and Yom Tov during which work is prohibited, yet they are still festival days that are observed with limited work restrictions.

The general idea is to minimize work so as to maximize the holiday celebration – a time to reflect, connect, and celebrate. Be Merry – it’s a week long festival! Try to drink wine and eat Matzah each day. i Learn more about Chol Hamoed at jrcc.org/CholHamoed

Counting the Omer

When: Each evening after dark, for 49 days, starting Thurs, April 6 The counting of the Omer leads up to the holiday of Shavuot and the giving of the Torah on the fiftieth day. The 49 days embody the 49 steps of self improvement.

i Learn more about this Mitzva at jrcc.org/omer

Yizkor

When: Thursday, April 13

Yizkor is the remembrance prayer for departed loved ones, where we implore G‑d to remember the souls of our relatives and friends that have passed on. The main component of Yizkor is our private pledge to give charity following the holiday in honor of the deceased. By giving charity, we are performing a positive physical deed in this world, something that the departed can no longer do, especially if our goods deeds emulate theirs. Yizkor renews and strengthens the connection between us and our loved one, brings merit to the departed souls, and elevates them in their celestial homes.

Yizkor Card

q Yes, I want the name(s) of my relatives / friends to be mentioned during the Yizkor Service and for the card to be places on the wall during services. Please, fill in clearly and submit by April 4, 2023:

NAMES OF THE DECEASED

Name: __________________ Mother’s Name: __________________

Name: __________________ Mother’s Name: __________________

Name: __________________ Mother’s Name: __________________

Name: __________________ Mother’s Name: __________________

In memory of my family / friend I make the following donation: q$18 q$25 q$36 q$54 q$100 q$180 qOther:$_________

YOUR INFORMATION

NAME PHONE EMAIL ADDRESS

qCheque enclosed or

qPlease charge my credit card: 1Visa 1Master Card 1AmEx Card No: ___________________________

Exp. Date: ________________ Signature: ____________________

All Night Learning

When: Tuesday night, April 11 - the 7th night of Pesach

It is customary to remain awake all night until dawn, studying Torah, in commemoration of the great miracle of the Splitting of the Sea, which occurred at dawn on the Seventh Day of Passover.

The Feast of Moshiach

When: Thursday, April 13, in the afternoon

On this final day of Passover we strive for the highest level of freedom, and focus on the Final Redemption. Following the Baal Shem Tov’s custom, we end Passover with “Moshiach’s Feast” — a festive meal complete with matzah and four cups of wine, during which we celebrate the imminent arrival of Moshiach. This unique experience begins before sunset and continues until after nightfall. i Learn more at jrcc.org/MoshiachFeast

Moshiach Time

One of the most constricting elements of the human condition is the phenomenon of time. Time carries off the past and holds off the future, confining our lives to a temporal sliver of “present.” But on the first night of Passover we break the bonds of time, having received a mandate to experience the Exodus “as if he himself has come out of Egypt.” We recall the Exodus in our minds, verbalize it in the telling of the Haggadah, digest it in the form of matzah and wine. As we passover the centuries, memory — those faded visages of past that generally constitute our only answer to the tyranny of time — becomes experience, and history is made current and real. On the last days of Passover, our transcendence of time enters a new, heightened phase: it is one thing to vitalize memory to the point of actual re experience, but quite another to make real an event that lies in the future, especially an event that has no parallel in the history of man. Yet in the closing hours of Passover, we enter into the world of Moshiach. Having vaulted over millennia of past on the seder nights, we now surmount the blank wall of future, to taste the matzah and wine of the ultimate redemption.

As the Rebbe teaches, when we open our eyes in this way, our awareness itself makes it real.

Passover concludes at 8:43pm on Thursday, April 13. Wait one hour before using Chometz.

BAR-MITZVAH!

Raphael Hirsh

Belenky

Levik Zaltzman

MARRIAGE!

Joseph Eidelshtein & Yocheved

Weizman

Yisrolik Shur & Leah Zucker

Wishing you much health, happiness and nachas, from the rabbis of the JRCC

Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman (Senior Rabbi)

Rabbi Avrohom Yusewitz, Rabbi Avrohom Zaltzman, Rabbi Levi Mishulovin, Rabbi Chaim Hildeshaim, Rabbi Levi Jacobson, Rabbi Mendel Zaltzman, Rabbi Levi Blau, Rabbi Shmuel Neft, Rabbi David Davidov, Rabbi Yisroel Zaltzman

SHARE THE J OY! the exodus magazine simcha section

Mazal Tov to

Rabbi Avrohom & Mrs. Rochel Yusewitz on the birth of their daughter

Mimi

May it be G-d’s will that you raise her and enable her to attain Torah, marriage and good deeds amidst property.

With Best Wishes, the JRCC Rabbi & Staff

Happy Passover!

AUTO & VEHICLE

Mazda of Toronto - page 22

FINANCIAL & LEGAL SERVICES

Finance & Tax Insurance - page 22

Lawyers - page 26

Leon Levin - page 20

Mayfair Law - page 27

Tatyana Subbotina - page 22

FUNERAL & MEMORIALS

Steeles Memorial Chapel - page 24

Stone Craft Monuments - page 22

HEALTH & BEAUTY

Bathurst Drug Mart - page 22

Dentistry in Oak Ridges - page 20

Dr. Asia Kreichman - page 20

Family Opticians- page 22

LF Optical- page 22

Massage Therapy - page 22

HEALTH & BEAUTY

Bathurst Drug Mart - page 22

Dentistry in Oak Ridges - page 20

Dr. Asia Kreichman - page 20

Family Opticians- page 22

LF Optical- page 22

Massage Therapy - page 22

HOME & OFFICE

Air Point - page 22

European Furniture- page 25

JOBS & SERVICES

Fiera Foods Job - page 3

Rolltec - page 20

The Israeli Network - page 26

OUR COMMUNITY

Mario G. Racco- page 22

Melissa Lantsman - page 27

Michael Kerzner- page 26

Pierre Poilievre - page 3

My many years of experience, knowledge, and professionalism help you make one of the most important buys of your life.

Michael Basin - page 22

Rachel Saltsov - page 20

RESTAURANTS

Chocolate Charm - page 22

Fiera Food- page 2

Freshco - page 23

Fresh Farm - page 23

No Frills - page 26

Sobeys - page 22

Superstore - page 25

Tov-Li - page 20

Yummy Market - page 2

JOHN

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HAPPY

Our Deepest Sympathies to the families of:

Katz Etta

Kogan Natan Kopman Getz

Leifman Eugene Nosovsky Michael

Pekar Ana

Shegelman Semen

Shifris Anna

Tcheravatsky Maria

Trtachtenbertg Zalman

Zazkis Klara

FROM THE RABBIS OF THE JEWISH RUSSIAN COMMUNITY CENTRE

Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman (Senior Rabbi)

Rabbi Avrohom Yusewitz

Rabbi Avrohom Zaltzman

Rabbi Levi Mishulovin

Rabbi Chaim Hildeshaim

Rabbi Levi Jacobson

Rabbi Mendel Zaltzman

Rabbi Levi Blau

Rabbi Shmuel Neft

Rabbi David Davidov

Rabbi Yisroel Zaltzman