NEW ADDRESS FOR---
Jeff and Ellen Levine: Sarasota FL
~ RABBI'S CORNER ~
''We Won't Get Fooled Again!''
This year Passover begins the evening of April 1, April Fool's Day. April Fool's Day is known as the day when practical jokes, pranks, and hoaxes are perpetrated on unsuspecting victims with the pranksters usually exposing themselves by shouting ''April Fools!'' This year's timing is curiously coincidental, but arguably not without significance.
The theme of Passover is succinctly stated in the Haggadah itself: ''We were slaves unto Pharoah in Egypt, and HaShem our G-d took us out with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. If the Holy One, Blessed be He, had not taken our ancestors out of Egypt, we and our children and children's children would still be slaves to Pharoah in Egypt.''
We recite these words because long ago (so we are taught) our ancestors chose to trust G-d's promise of liberation communicated to them by Moses. But according to one view, not all of us made this choice. According to Exodus 13:18, ''[T]he Israelites went up chamushim out of the land of Egypt.'' The word chamushim is usually translated as ''armed.'' However, a midrash associates the word chamushim to chamesh - the number 5 - and boldly suggests that only 1/5 of the entire people, only 20%, trusted the promise and chose to leave. In other words, 80% of the people did not believe the promise and perhaps some thought it was a hoax. Ultimately, they preferred the familiarity of slavery over taking risks for freedom. Perhaps this is why the first sentence of the Ten Commandments specifically mentions not just being taken out of bondage, but out of the house of bondage. Why? Because a house represents familiarity and safety. And human beings often will choose the safe familiarity of the statue quo, no matter how deleterious to their wellbeing, over the risk of making major changes to improve their lives. Just ask any therapist.
After so many years of enslavement, it is not surprising that our ancestors might have been a tad skeptical regarding a promise to liberate them by a G-d they had only heard about from stories of their ancestors. After so many years of enslavement, it is understandable that they might have initially thought it to be a hoax. Which is why G-d may have chosen to show His powerful bona fides not just to Pharoah, but also to the people, via the Ten Plagues.
But as the narrative relates, doubt and mistrust plagued (pun intended) even those who chose to leave. More than once they kvetched ''Why did G-d bring us here, if not to die in the desert? Why did we believe Moses? Why did we trust G-d? How could we have been so gullible?''
Notably, their panicked kvetching began right before they were saved at the sea. Three days after G-d had performed a miracle through manipulating water, the people complained distrustfully when water wasn't immediately available. G-d showed Moses how to provide water for them, adding that if they would just listen faithfully to His voice - if they would just trust Him - He would not bring upon them any of the afflictions suffered by the Egyptians. Water was provided. But right after this, they complained about the lack of food, accusing Moses and Aaron of bringing them out just to die in the desert. G-d's response was the manna, which was their steady diet for the rest of their journey.
Despite the empirical evidence in other similar episodes that G-d was working on their behalf, their distrust and unbelief never abated. Each episode was characterized by a variation of ''We were fooled. It was hoax. Why did we leave Egypt?'' Finally, G-d had had enough and the two-year journey to the promised land became forty.
It should be noted that the ones who believed they had been fooled were the actual eyewitnesses to the miracles themselves. Given that they doubted despite what they had witnessed, it's no wonder that we, who only read/hear the story millennia later, would have our own doubts re the reliability of stories affirming G-d's reliability - particularly after Auschwitz---or October 7.
And yet, at our seder tables we will recite the Haggadah, with its plethora of praise to G-d. Predictably, we will most likely sing Dayenu enthusiastically, the song that recounts not only our rescue from Egypt, but also a host of other deeds done by G-d, all to remind us of G-d's reliability.
But even as we sing and perhaps bang on our tables, nevertheless for many of us the lyrics will just be words sung without conviction - much like our prayers that are often recited without conviction. Why? Because for many of us, doubt and cynicism have eclipsed trust and belief. Given the ideas and ideologies of modernity that have promoted such doubt and cynicism, it is not surprising that some might cynically ask: ''At the end of the day, isn't all this 'Jewish stuff' really just a hoax? Couldn't the last 3000 years really have been just one big April Fools' joke?'' Indeed, one can imagine such sentiments being accompanied by the declaration immortalized by the The Who: ''We won't get fooled again!''.
On the other hand, the current 20% of us will insist: ''Despite past challenges and no matter what ideas/ideologies that have succeeded into seducing some of us into doubt and cynicism, we will continue to trust and affirm the prophetic promise ''Netzach Yisrael lo y'shaker/the Eternal One of Israel does not lie.'' Thus---''WE won't get fooled again!''
At this crucial moment when we Jews again face existential challenges as did our ancestors in Egypt, the question is put to us: Is our 3000-year old legacy true, or merely a longstanding April Fools' prank?
Once again, it's time for the chosen ones to choose.
(A version of this piece was recently published in the daily online edition of the Jewish News Syndicate)
~ PASSOVER ~
Passover is our holiday of celebrating the Jewish people's transformation from individuals who were enslaved into a nation that was free. Temple Sholom will be holding our traditional 2nd Night Seder this Thursday, April 2 beginning at 6:00 p.m. We hope you have made your reservations and plan to attend.
~ CONTRIBUTIONS ~
SPECIAL
-In memory of my husband Jeff from Inas Sisler
~ YAHRZEIT LIST ~
APR 3: Fannie Dagan, Goldie Pommer, Charlotte M. Salzer, Mary Schuman, Louis A. Shatsky, Celia Roth, Ida P. Zitsman, Wolf Zitsman, Hyman Draisen (father of Bernice Goldman), Ben Irwin (father of Stephanie Paugh), Jack Leventhal (father of Aaron Leventhal), Sylvia Harton Wolf (mother of Fran Rickenbach)
APR 10: Samuel Altschul, Ben Goldman, Cecile Leider Greenland, James R. Herron, Jonathan N. Irwin (brother of Stephanie Paugh), William Smith, Charles Saul Stein, Yetta Miller Stein, Blanche Stillpass (mother of Phyllis Nedelman)
APR 17: Nathan Ebner, Belle K. Freed, Harry L. Levy, Louis Rubinoff, Samuel Soble, Hattie Rachel Willens
APR 24: Mona Freed, Robert Pommer, Dorothy Rosenfield, Gus M. Salzer, Marilyn Schneider (mother of Bruce & Larry Schneider), Alex Leventhal (father of Ed Leventhal), Jean Morgan Mandell
MAY 1: Rae Bernstein, Joseph Block, Sharon Lee Broock, Robert M. Gold, David S. Greenland, Jacob Holzberg, Irene Klaben, Simon Zoav Levine, Cecile Strauss, Jacob Weinfeld, Pamela Embrey (mother of Faydra Embrey), Rabbi Lloyd R. Goldman (husband of Bernice Goldman), Harry Lurie, Anne Rosenstein