The Passover Seder celebrates our being freed from slavery.  Yet, we are sometimes enslaved by rigid notions of how the Seder must be run.  Please consider Reb Zalman’s suggestions as you plan your Seders during the next few weeks.  I wish you all a suessen Pesach!  Gabbai Seth Fishman (BLOG Editor)

TOWARD FREEING THE SEDER

By Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Ph.D.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Rechatz / Hand Washing
Die Vier Kashes / The Four Questions
Avadim Hayinu / We Were Slaves
Enslavement to Dualities
Freedom and Mishpocha
Two Seders
Esser Makot / 10 Plagues
The Fast in the Feast
Sheloshah Devorim / The Three Things
Pesach / Passover Lamb
Baking Your Own Matzah
Matzah: The First Taste
Three Matzahs: Three Sets of Jews
Breaking the Middle Matzah
Three Matzahs: Chochmah, Binah, Da-at
Maror
Maror: Bitter Work
Maror: Somatic Connections
Shulchan, Nirtzah / Meal, Acceptance

Introduction

I am here to free you from the Maxwell House Haggadah, to free you in your Pesach celebration! 

One thing that’s wrong with widely-used Haggadahs is archaic English like “vouchsafe,” or “bestow.”  This kind of language makes it hard for us to understand even the of-this-plane plagues of the Egyptians, e.g. what is “murrain?”  And the instructions are wooden.

Why? Because at the time when these Haggadahs were edited, people wanted specific directions, a definite, “Amy Vanderbilt” description of precisely how one was to do it.  They weren’t interested in being free to play, to elaborate.

But you are not just free to use better Haggadahs, (the ones with good translations and more openness), you are also free to use the material as a jumping-off point for playing, for elaboration.   Like the Siddur, the Haggadah is a kind of a cookbook filled with recipes.  You can’t eat a cookbook, even ones with the tastiest, the most nourishing recipes.  You must do the cooking to turn recipes to dishes.  And it’s similar with the Haggadah:  You make the words three-dimensional, four-dimensional.  Every Seder you have is a different way to bring the words off the page with different “spices,” different life-conditions.  Here are some notes toward freeing your Seders:

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Here’s another piece from Reb Zalman’s Yishmru Da’at work, from the section on Purim.  Blessings to you and yours, Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

“Blot out the memory of Amalek” (Deut: 25:19),
meaning that from the memory of Amalek [having hurt you], you must be purified from all unclean pain, [i.e., pain plus lost confidence, or pain plus self-blame, or pain plus irrational fear, etc.], so that you can stay in touch with your real situation at present.  [Being more in touch] will, in turn, enable you to understand choices for further action in your struggles with the enemy.  And if there has been no introspection and examination  regarding the enemy, you must purify from complex, past pain.  It may have come from an enemy other [than your present one], or it may have come from conditions of other times or places which may not be directly connected to the present [attacks].  Since our having been attacked [means] we were in proximity with oppressors, blot out their names, and we should regard them as the Inquisition that came to remove us from society and to extinguish our spirit, (as in the example of Hanukkah), or the oppressors who came to annihilate our bodies, (as Haman on Purim).

This is a translation of the first section on Purim from Reb Zalman’s book Yishmru Da’at available from Aleph.  The Hebrew text is found after the English below.  Happy Purim.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

“Remember what Amalek did to you…  He chilled you on the way – put you down…  When [God] will grant you rest…  Blot out the memory of Amalek… Don’t Forget.”  (Deut 25;17,18,19)

“Blot out the memory of Amalek…”  That is, no memory of Amalek shall remain with you.  And at the same time, “Don’t forget?”  It’s strange.  How can we remove our memory of him and yet not forget him?  Why it’s a contradiction!  A paradox that can’t be understood on face value.  And so it raises safeq / doubt regarding this commandment.

How to explain? Like so:  Amalek in numerical value is safeq / doubt.

70 (ayin) + 40 (mem) + 30 (lamed) + 100 (kuf) = 60 (Samech) + 80 (feh) + 100 (kuf)

And what main doubt [is Amalek’s legacy]?  In everyone, there is a deep-seated urge for self-destruction, to sabotage oneself, stemming from [the angel’s] strong arguments [as to why mankind should not happen], and Azael, and as written in the section on Yom Kippur in the Sefer Beit Yaakov (Izhbitze).  This accusation [against mankind] is found in the Christian “Original Sin,” the sin of the Tree of Knowledge.

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Reb Zalman says: 

“As part of what I consider to be my ethical will and summation of my life, I want to bring to your attention my experience and thoughts on conversion. 

“We have always taken responsibility for conversion and we have always taken responsibility for our converts, not only with regard to this incarnation, but also regarding previous and subsequent incarnations.”

Please read the following words from Reb Zalman.  If you wish to add your thoughts, please do so in the comments section at the end.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor.

B’nai Noach Within Our Communities:
Gerey Tzedek / Converts
And Gerey Toshav / Non-Converts

by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Table of Contents:

Ger Tzedek or Ger Toshav?
Some Guidelines
Raise Expectations
Include A Klall Yisrael Perspective
Ensure Adequate Education and Preparation
Provide Supports
In The Case of Intermarriage
Neshamot / Souls
Holocaust
Jews In Passing
Hyphenation
Conclusion

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