Passover, at Home and at Synagogue
After Passover, I got quite busy getting ready for the arrival of a baby to our family and neglected to keep this website up to date with all of my divrei Torah. I’m uploading some selected Divrei Torah that I think represents some of my better work over the last three months.
Shabbat HaGadol, 5784
Shabbat HaGadol. The great Shabbat. So named, according to some, because of the higher than normal turnout, so rabbis would speak at a great length about their preferred topic. Don’t worry, I’m not going to speak so much longer than I normally would today. But since I have you as a captive audience, I am once again to talk to you about Passover.
What is it about Passover that speaks to the Jews? For many Jews, it is one of the few home observances that they perform during the year. Jews who don’t care about keeping kosher the rest of the year can suddenly become very keen about avoiding bread for 7-8 days. This can take some unintuitive forms. I was friends growing up with a Reform Jew who was very proud about not eating bread for Passover, and putting pepperoni on his matzah pizza. But why should not eating bread seem to be important for many Jews than not eating pork? Why Passover?
And what about the Seder? Google “Haggadahs” and you can find any type of Haggadah you want. You can find the Comedy Haggadah. The Social Justice Haggadah. The Israeli Black Panther Haggadah. The Harry Potter Haggadah. The Environmental Haggadah. You can even find a 10 minute Seder out there (hopefully not counting eating the meal). Some of these Haggadahs use the traditional text, some do not. But the Seder, the order, is almost always the same. Wine, washing, vegetables, breaking the middle matzah, story, eating matzah, marror, sandwich, the meal, and so on. The most anti-traditional Haggadot out there still follow this basic order. What is it about Passover?
I think that Passover resonates with us Jews for a couple of reasons. First, it's a holiday centered around children. When we are children, we create strong memories of the holiday. It sticks in our head. We want to pass them on to our children, or to the children of our friends and family. Secondly, it's not seen as a synagogue holiday. It’s a home ritual centered around eating together as a family. In an age when home rituals are increasingly moving to the shul, for many Jews, Passover is still a celebration they reserve for the home. Many Jews feel like they can take more of an ownership of Passover, and the Seder, then they can with a synagogue service.
And look, I get it. As a synagogue professional, I’m not offended. But while I get that this is the general feeling, that Passover is a holiday meant to be experienced entirely in the home, I want to push back against that narrative.
Passover, like every Jewish holiday, has its share of private components (for the home) and public components (for the synagogue). You already know most of the Passover ritual for home–the Seder, the Afikoman, the festive meal, telling the story, and all of that. But you might not have known that some components of our home ritual are adopted from services. Hallel, for instance, was (and is some places still is) sung in the synagogue on Passover night, before the Seder. In fact, there are several rules about how to manage the Passover evening service so as to facilitate getting home in time for the Seder. But in our community, we don’t even have that service.
As for the day time services, the first day of Passover has the transition from winter to spring, with the dramatic prayer “Tal” or “Dew” that symbolizes that we will start praying for dew during the Amidah and stop praying for rain. On the seventh day, the day the Israelites stood at the Red Sea, we read the story from the Torah and sing that song the Moshe and Miriam sang. And on the eighth day, like the final day of all our holidays, we have a Yizkor memorial service for those who are no longer with us.
All of those special moments can only be fulfilled publicly, in community. Yet all of those special moments are in danger of not happening this year. You might have seen that included with our selling Chametz form was a service signup sheet. I am grateful to the people who have filled out that sheet. As we stand right now, none of our services, not even Yizkor, will have a minyan. The eighth day is the closest, with us just needing one or two more people. But everyone other service has as few as four or five people coming.
I understand that Passover is during the week. I understand that it can be difficult to take off work. But this synagogue, and these services, are not mine. They are yours. What ill does it do me if we don’t get a minyan on Passover? It’s less work for me–I don’t have to learn the Torah readings, don’t have to think about sermons. I’ll pray and be done with it. But for our community, it would be a loss. Not to have the Tal prayer, not to sing Hallel together, not to have Yizkor–it would be a tremendous loss.
The Seder is nice because you are responsible for it by yourself. Or if you are attending someone else’s Seder you don’t even have to be responsible for it. But communal events are more challenging. We are all equally responsible for making sure that services take place, that minyans get made, that Yizkor is chanted. It is not enough for us to say “It is good we have services,” and then not attend. Because ultimately, that road leads to there not being services at all. For anyone.
Kol yisrael arevim ze la ze. All of Israel is responsible for one another. We must choose to commit, for the sake of our community. There is more to Passover than just that which we do be ourselves, or in our smaller circles. There is also the Passover for the entire community. Let us come together this year and make it happen. That’s my challenge for you. It’s really very simple: just 2 hours of your time for a couple of days over Passover. We can make those services happen. Let’s make it happen.
Chag Kasher V’Sameach.
