Be the Sixth Child - Pesach 5786 (2)

-

We are in the Monsey NY area with our daughter Menucha Klyne and her husband Rabbi Mendy, who had a son BH the day before Pesach, so I had the opportunity to sit back and listen to the local Rabbi speak on Yomtov. (I am indebted to Rabbi Zalman and Devorah who are so ably leading Chabad Palo Alto.) Rabbi Yosef Ives is from Stamford Hill London where I grew up. He gave a fascinating talk about the importance of the Four Sons in the Haggadah and their relevance to us. 


We face many challenges as Jews, in general and in living our lives according to Torah and living up to our purpose and mission. 


The child who “doesn’t know to ask” is the Jew who is totally not involved. He knows nothing about his Jewish identity and is clueless about any issues with Jewish life.  


The simple child who says “what’s this” recognizes the challenges but has no idea how to deal with it and throws up his hands and gives up. 


The Rasha who says “what is this service to YOU” is the one who says that all the trouble we have is because we are different and we stand out. He says that we need to assimilate and give up our weird practices and be like everyone else and then we won’t have any problems. This was the attitude of the “Yevsektsia”, the Jewish section of the Soviet secret police who violently tried to uproot all Judaism. This is the true Rasha - wicked person, but there are of course many variations and gradations of this through the generations. 


The wise child is the one who recognizes that these challenges are there for us to overcome. He is curious and delves deeply into the Torah, its laws and customs and their meanings, with full trust that he will succeed. 


Just as in the Seder, we deal with and respond to each one, we always have the obligation and responsibility to engage every Jew, to remind them that we overcame Egypt and will continue to overcome all challenges. That we should never give up on anyone and with the proper effort we can encourage every child to recognize the beauty and power of our heritage and that when Moshiach comes nobody will be left behind. 


The Rebbe talked about our generation’s fifth child who is not even at the Seder table, and the need to reach out to them and invite them in. Today a friend, Kaylee Frager who used to live and teach in Palo Alto, called me and shared an idea about a sixth child. That is the Chabad Shliach who went out to find the fifth child and welcome him back into the family. 


Join the team!


Chag sameach. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sometimes Silence is the Answer - Chukat 5785

-
  (Dedicated to the memory of Rachel bat Yosef Shmuel. Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, teacher and friend. She passed away on Erev Shabbat and was laid to rest surrounded by her family and many, many friends in the Holy Land.) Chukat, the Parsha we read and study this week, talks a lot about death. Miriam and Aharon, two of the three greatest siblings of our people, pass away. And Moshe is informed that he will not live to take the Jewish People into Israel.  The Parsha begins with the laws of the “Red Heifer.” This was the cow that was slaughtered and then burned, and its ashes mixed with “living” spring water. The mixture was sprinkled on a person who had come in contact with a corpse, twice over a period of seven days, and he or she would then immerse in a Mikvah and thus be purified from the Tumah (ritual “impurity”) that came from contact with the corpse.  There is a fascinating Midrash that recounts a discussion between Hashem and Moshe. Hashem taught Moshe t...
Read more

Yes, There is a Hierarch! - Nasso 5785

-
Is sameness a good thing?  How about hierarchy?  Equality is the word nowadays, but what does true equality mean?  The Jewish nation was created with a hierarchy.  The 12 sons of Jacob, also called Israel, were the original “B’nai Yisrael.”  Jacob gifted Yosef a double portion, as the first-born of his beloved wife Rachel, making his two sons Menashe and Efraim heads of separate tribes.  Of the 13 tribes, one stood out, the tribe of Levi.   The Levites were chosen to carry the portable Sanctuary through the desert, and serve in the Temple as guards, singers, doorkeepers and more.  They lived in special cities and guided the people.  The leader of the Jewish people, Moshe, was from the tribe of Levi.  They stood out in their faithfulness to Hashem in Egypt and throughout the journey in the desert, by circumcising their children and following the traditional lifestyle passed down by Jacob.  They did not participate in the Golden ...
Read more

Your Choice to Accept the Facts - Va’etchanan 5785

-
I was approached by an author to give him my “elevator pitch” to prove there is a G-d.  An elevator pitch is a short 30 second hard-hitting sales pitch you could give an executive that you happen to meet in an elevator.  I told him that I can’t prove to you that there is a G-d, but you can prove it to yourself.  Faith in G-d is a choice we make.  We can have incontrovertible evidence and still deny it, because Hashem Himself created us with free choice and a voice inside us that questions. I recently heard a story about two people arguing about what a creature on top of the roof was, a bird or a cat.  As they were getting into a heated argument, a passerby suggested a simple way to settle the question.  He suggested they throw a stone onto the roof and see what happens.  If the creature runs away, it’s a cat, and if it flies away it is a bird.  What a brilliant idea!  So they threw a stone onto the roof, and the thing flew away.  “See,...
Read more