Weekly Message

April 11, 2025
13 Nisan 5785
Parashat Tzav
Leviticus 6:1 - 8:36

Dear Friends,

I wish you meaningful conversations, good food, music and hope for the future as you enjoy your four cups of wine tomorrow night.

The Seder is a night of learning, eating and singing. We ask that if there are children at our table for them to lead the way as we confront the difficult questions that this liberation puts before us. The seder is an event that demands the most of our imaginations. We are to put ourselves into the roles of slaves, into the role of the ordinary Egyptian, and we do it within a framework (the seder, which means order) that is different in every household yet bound together by certain elements.

In this moment, where the differences among us as human beings seem to be garnering the most attention, the seder is an event that celebrates both our differences and the things that bind us together. It can serve as a potent model as we go forward. With that in mind I offer you three thoughts/readings for your Seder:

I truly believe that we are stronger together and fear cannot overwhelm us.



“…wherever you are it is probably Egypt (meaning a narrow place). There is a better place, a promised land. The only way to the Promised Land is through the wilderness. There is no way to get there except by joining hands together and marching.”

Michael Walzer

Music always provides hope; it has the power to transform the moment. No matter how tired, sing! 

“This year, singing songs of celebration feels premature and perhaps even inappropriate. And so, as we stumble bleary-eyed through the end of the seder, let us sing with a different intention. Let us sing to show that we believe that we are committed to our ideals and our faith, and that we accept our responsibility to create and re-create a world that manifests peace.”

Dr. Tal Becker, Hartman Institute

Hardened Hearts
by Rabbi Linda Shriner-Cahn

A field of hearts
Cracked open.
Hardened

Shards covering an open field.
Unrecognizable
Once beating, caring giving
Rage breaking them asunder.

Who did this?
Why?
Who will mend all of the brokenness?
The pain, the anguish

Pharoah heart hardened,
His own will?
Maybe not
Blind to his people,
Wanting glory above all else
Refusing to lose
Winning at all costs

Until the abyss
The death of a child
Love and loss intertwined.

It feels like the abyss.
Is staring at us
In this very moment

Stepping back

Holding one another tightly
Taking one step backward
Inch by painful inch

Our hearts begin to soften.
And healing becomes an option.

May we find a way to journey through this time as we sit at our various seder tables and in the process may we find the strength to keep going. Remember our ancestors complained, and complained heartily and yet they kept going. In community, with community we will find strength.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Linda Shrienr-Cahn