blogs/rabbi-joshua-hoffman

The clamor and revel of Purim is lingering this week and we continue to offer our gratitude and affection to our totally awesome Cantor, Phil Baron, and our insanely talented musical director, Chris Hardin, for producing all the fun! Kol HaKavod! For those who missed our Beach Party Purim event, it was the best Megillah reading at VBS in years.

Purim is over now, and it's just about four weeks away before Pesah. It's time to begin cleaning out all the leftover matzah meal and kosher for passover ketchup from last year. Before long, we'll be sorting out the details for the Seder and trying once again to enliven and engage our family members as we gather around the table. Maybe it will be a fun game or a silly song that encourages us to fulfill the central teaching of the Passover holiday, “In each generation, we are obligated to see ourselves as if we have been liberated from slavery and brought into the embrace of freedom.”

Here's something novel to consider as you find your way to a Seder table in the coming weeks:

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who walk into a room and say, "There you are" and those who say, "Here I am."

With much appreciation to the author of this quote, the great columnist Abigail Van Buren, this insight speaks deeply to what the Passover holiday can be for us and for our families. While each of us might be more like one type of person or the other in the quote, we have the capacity to be both. Passover is indeed a time when we can see the other people in the room and truly find out ‘where they are' in their lives. There are still those moments when we also have the real opportunity to say, ‘here's where I'm at' on this holiday too. Either way, this identifying moment is always in relation to another person, and Pesah is not meant to be spent alone. Passover is a time when both ways to share are welcome!

Typically, when we do share around the table, it's a simple check in with work and responsibilities we take on to care for others. Maybe this year you'll have the chance to turn to a loved one or a new friend and share with them this question, and share a conversation unlike years passed. Who knows? It could be that taste of freedom we are commanded to savor though we were personally not the ones who left Egypt thousands of years ago.

So, this year, in the moments between the gefilte fish and the matzah ball soup, or between the halleq and the gundi, there's a chance to ask this question around the table, if not for everyone, then for yourself. Which kind of person are you? How will you enter the room?

May the room you do enter be filled with Passover joy and significance.

Please make your plans to join us at VBS on Wednesday, April 2 beginning at 6:00 p.m. for PASSOVER UNIVERSITY, where we will offer workshops to get you ready for the holidays. 

CLICK HERE for further details and to register to attend online.