A Soulful Journey

 "You should always remember," a learned man said to his colleague, "that bread and butter will always fall with the buttered side down." "Not always," replied his friend.  "I have seen bread fall with the buttered side up." "Impossible," reasoned the other.  "It must have been buttered on the wrong side." Being reasonable is not always easy as it means listening to other people's opinion, even when it dramatically differs from ours.  We experience this idea on Pesach when we read about the "wicked" son.  Say many sages, "Do not give up on him.  At least he showed up at the table and has not dissociated himself from his people."  Listen to his opinion.

"Sandy Koufax is now on the (Brooklyn) Dodgers, but he is still like one of us.  Spring has ended.  The season has ended.  The season is about the begin.  And it is Passover.  We took matzo sandwiches to Ebbets Field with chicken fat.  We go to the dugout give it to Sandy and he's saying, "Get out.  Get away.  They are crazy.  They are tumlers!" Jackie Robinson came over and said, "What's this?" "Matzo." We had the whole Dodger bench eating matzo and chicken fat."  - Larry King As Jews, we are called upon to share with the world our understanding of what God wants.  While this story may not be exactly applicable to what God wants us to share with the world, it illustrates that we should not be shy about sharing with others our truth, our way.

A man wants to go to find Elijah the prophet. So he prepares himself, gather his food, set off, because he has heard that Elijah will be at one particular Seder in the small village, in the middle of nowhere.  And finally after a long journey, he approaches a house, old and ramshackle. He looks in through a cracked window as an extended family gathered to celebrate the Seder. They are wearing their finest for Yontif and yet he can see that they are poor because the clothes are patched, the walls are bare and even for this, the greatest meal of the year, there is barely any food on the table. And he wonders, can Elijah really be here? Sadly, he realizes he must have come to the wrong house. Elijah cannot possibly be here at this table. He starts to walk away. As he walks away he forgets about Elijah in the simply heartened by the warmth, the children smiling and singing and the lights of the candles. And then he thinks about the fact that he has so much food and they h...

The Plague The deepest darkness is when a person doesn't see his neighbor and doesn't participate in the sorrow of another person: "A person didn't see his brother". The consequence is that, when one doesn't feel his fellow's sorrow, the feelings become dull and are silenced. "No one got up from beneath it". He has no way of recovering. Hiddushei HaRim to Ex. 10:23, cited by Itturei Torah

Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi used to tell this story of an encounter he had with Brother Rufus, a Native American medicine man. Reb Zalman and Brother Rufus were attending a conference of psychologists and mystics; the psychologists were studying the mystics. As Reb Zalman was explaining the Jewish festival of Sukkot, which occurs at the fall equinox, and the holiday of Passover, which comes at the spring equinox, Brother Rufus lit up! “Oh,” he said, “in the fall you teach your children the shelter survival and in the spring you teach them the food survival.” Rabbi Bonnie Koppell

An atheists spent Pesach with the rabbi in order to scoff at him. "Rabbi, what part of the Haggadda are you up to?" he jokingly asked as he entered. "I am up to Had Gadya, where the dog came..."

 “Had anyone suggested at the time that it would not be the Egypt of the pharaohs that would survive and change the moral landscape of the world, but instead a group of Hebrew slaves, it would have seemed an absurdity.” - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks 

"More than 300 years ago a ship by the name of the Mayflower left Plymouth for the New World. It was a great event in American and English history. I wonder how many Englishmen or how many Americans know exactly the date when that ship left Plymouth, how many people were on the ship, and what was the kind of bread that people ate when they left Plymouth. Well, more than 3,300 years ago the Jews left Egypt. It was more than 3,000 years ago and every Jew in the world knows exactly the date when we left. It was on the 15th of Nisan. The bread they ate was matzoth. Up to date all the Jews throughout the world on the 15th of Nisan eat the same matzoth, in America, in Russia, and tell the story of the exile from Egypt and tell what happened, all the sufferings that happened to the Jews since they went into exile. They finish by these two sentences: "This year we are slaves; next year we will be free. This year we are here; next year we will be in Zion, the land of Israel." Je...

A merchant once came to Rabbi Moses, the Rabbi of Pressberg, known for his magnum opus as the Chatam Sofer, and asked the rabbi’s blessing for his business.   Rabbi Moses said to him: ‘I heard that your brother is very poor man and you aren’t helping him.’   The merchant justified himself:   ‘My business isn’t doing well, and I can not afford to help my brother now.” Rabbi Moses answered him, ‘It states in the Torah: “I too have heard the sighs of the children of Israel whom Egypt is enslaving.”    We know that the word, too , is meant to be inclusive.   What does it include here? This teaches us that even though all the Jews were enslaved, and that each one sighed for his own sorrows, nevertheless all heard the sighs of their brothers and felt their distress. It was because of this that God, too, come heard their sighs.”   - Rabbi Menachem HaCohen Heed the cries of the needy.

Author Frederick Morton related that once at a family seder his grandmother packed the idea of liberation into a gesture.   It came when it was time to dip a finger and shake off ten drops of wine symbolizing the ten plagues that punished Egypt.   His grandmother did not shake them off one by one.   Instead, she thrust both hands into the cup and sent tenfold spray flying.   “There,” she said to the enemy, “take that for starting it.” The purpose of Passover is to “feel” as if you were there.  

Author Frederick Morton related that once at a family seder his grandmother packed the idea of liberation into a gesture.   It came when it was time to dip a finger and shake off ten drops of wine symbolizing the ten plagues that punished Egypt.   His grandmother did not shake them off one by one.   Instead, she thrust both hands into the cup and sent tenfold spray flying.   “There,” she said to the enemy, “take that for starting it.” The purpose of Passover is to “feel” as if you were there.  

During the holiday of Pesach, Rabbi Max Artz found himself in the heartland of America.  He was hungry but could not go to a restaurant.  It was Pesach.  But a rabbi lived somewhere in the area.  Artz went and knocked at the door.  No one answered.  No one was at home. He tried the door and it was unlocked so he went in.  Ravenously hungry, he ate one half of a chicken and other food he found in the refrigerator.  After cleaning up, he left a note, "Thank you. Prophet Elijah." Was it a joke?  Could it be that he was the famous prophet?  The answer is yes, depending upon how the note was received.  How would you react?

The Bluzhiver Rebbe told the story of his forst year in Bergen-Belsen death camp when the Jews bribed the German camp commander to give them flour instead of bread so they could bake matzah for Passover.   At the grim seder the Rebbe was asked whether, given their circumstances. The Jew should make the traditional blessing of ‘ ga’al Yisrael ,’ “who had redeemed Israel”.   He answered that as long as we are alive and could say that blessing, we should do so, and in a loud voice, even if with tears! Bless God no matter the circumstances.

A story is told about a king who reversed his father’s order forcing the Jews to convert.  The town’s rabbi was excited and told his wife.  “Bracheleh,” he exclaimed, “I have great news.  The new king has said we don’t have to be Christian anymore.  We can go back to being Jews.”  His wife let out a sigh, expressing disappointment.  The husband was surprised and puzzled, and asked her what was wrong.  “This was the moment we have been dreaming of and waiting for,” he told his wife.  She said, “I know.  I know.  I can’t be happier, but couldn’t he at least have waited a few more days, until after Pesah to allow us to be Jews again?!” -  Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt