Heroes in the Sand
And gave us the Torah, and brought us into the Land of Israel” (Dayeinu, Pesach Hagaddah) There is a famous question, asked year after year at almost every Seder table. Why did the Holy One, Blessed is He, give us…
The Chief Rabbi’s Pesach Message 5779
The two central themes of Pesach – peoplehood and freedom – have the potential to either provide great blessing or pose great danger to our society. The Exodus from Egypt paved the way for the Israelites to become a people.…
Passover Tells Us: Teach Your Children Well
As one nation after another in Africa and the Middle East engages in a fight for freedom, Passover, which begins this week, still has much to teach us about the nature of that fight. The Jewish festival of freedom is…
Caesarians and Pesach
Some time ago, a woman I know gave birth for the first time to a baby boy through a Caesarian-Section. Following the Brit I was asked to calculate when the Pidyon HaBen would fall. My attempt to explain to the…
Ten Plagues or ten lessons?
The ten plagues. Hashems way of executing the justified punishment for the Egyptians. The several hundred years of intense and barbaric treatment that the Egyptian nation delivered unto the Jewish people would not go unnoticed. But why is it that…