As we approach the holiday of Pesach I will forgo addressing the lessons that lie in our weekly Parsha, Metzorah, and look towards the Pesach Seder. There is no expression that can overstate the importance and significance of the coming Pesach Seder. If I were to say that the destiny of our people rests upon next week’s Seder it would be accurate. If I were to say that the future of my family remaining faithful members of our people rests upon next week’s Seder it would be accurate. If I were to say that HaShem and His entire court of ministering angels comes down (so to speak) from Heaven to listen in wonderment at next week’s Seder it would be accurate. It is truly impossible to overstate what will transpire at next week’s Seder.
When HaShem took us out of Egypt, the intention was that we would be His people and as long as He continues to run the world. This means that HaShem had to build into the fabric of this nation the capacity to remain eternally viable.
In the construction of a skyscraper it is critical to build it upon a very strong foundation. The taller the building the deeper and stronger the foundation must be. That works well in designing buildings which are static. Once it is built it remains as is. It does not undergo regular ongoing changes.
The Jewish people are a skyscraper in history. We are a nation that has always been vibrant and productive. Most of our 3,328 years we have been without a land. We have been dispersed. We have been despised by our host nations. And nevertheless we continue to thrive, albeit with much difficulty. The foundation from which our people sprout was set with our exodus from Egypt. The question that must be answered is how does that foundation continue to support us today. As a people, we are not a building that once built it remains. We are dynamic and under constant change. How does that foundation from 3,300 years ago nourish us today.
In telecommunications there is a machine called a repeater that receives an electronic signal and then sends it out again. Repeaters are used to get a signal to other side of a hill or other forms of obstructions. They are also used to amplify the signal that has been transmitted a far distance away and would die out.
The Pesach Seder serves as a repeater that is constantly receiving and sending and amplifying as necessary the message and reinforcement that we received at the time of our Exodus.
The Seder is the mechanism that every reader of this Parsha thought can use to create and to maintain and to develop a real connection to our past to insure our participation in the future of our people. This should not be understood only in the context of our children for this is OUR connection to that glorious past as it transitions to our even more glorious future.
Dear reader, I want to encourage you to find time this week to read through the Hagadah (the Seder Book) and find meaning in it so that when we arrive at the Seder we will be elevated upon the wings that HaShem stretches out for us to alight along our journey to our final Destiny.
To this end I will be offering a class on Preparation for the Seder this Sunday evening 4/17 at the Malachevsky home (3002 Lightfoot Drive) 8:00. I welcome you.
