WISHING YOU A KOSHER & HAPPY PASSOVER Non Profit Org. U.S. postage PAID Rochester, NY Permit No. 4237 CHABAD LUBAVITCH ROCHESTER NY THE CHABAD TIMES A Publication of Chabad Lubavitch of Rochester VOLUME 37 NUMBER 3 NISSAN 5780 V”C APRIL 2020 Kessler Family Chabad Center Chabad Of Pittsford Chabad Young Professionals Rohr Chabad House @ U of R Chabad House @ R.I.T. 1037 Winton Rd. S. 21 Lincoln Ave. 18 Buckingham St. 955 Genesee St. 91 York Bay Trail Rochester NY 14618 Pittsford, NY 14534 Rochester, NY 14607 Rochester, NY 14611 West Henrietta NY 14586 585-271-0330 585-385-2097 585-350-6634 585-503-9224 347-546-3860 ww.chabadrochester.com www.jewishpittsford.com www.yjparkave.com www.urchabad.org www.chabadrit.com Wishing You & Yours xmwv rwk gx A Kosher & Happy Passover Dear Friends, As we go to press, we are all experiencing the strange paradox of preparing for Passover, the joyous Holiday of our Freedom while dealing with the fluid Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. Although our Public Passover Seder plans have obviously been put on hold, the Passover Holiday itself will, with G-d’s help, be celebrated in our community to the best of everyone's ability. We are here to help each other – if there is anything we can do to assist you, Passover related or otherwise, please don’t hesitate to contact us (see our contact info above). We are entering the month of Nissan: The Month of Spring, the Month of Redemption, the Month of Miracles. We are celebrating 3,332 of years of Freedom - for 3,332 years G-d has carried us through thick and thin, the ups and the downs. We pray for those who need healing of all types and for a speedy end to this difficult situation, and we do so with absolute confidence in G-d’s benevolent protection and blessing. Our unity is our strength; Chazak V’ematz – let us be strong and courageous. May we all soon experience the Ultimate Redemption! With abundant love & blessings, Chabad Lubavitch of Rochester page 2 The Chabad Times - Rochester NY - Nissan 5780 with the portion of the Haggadah that is Maggid Unconditional Hospitality (retelling the story of the Exodus): "This is the bread of As told by Yanki Tauber affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt... " We For several years the two "Rabbis!" he announced, "the pointed to the matzah. We - saintly brothers, Rabbi Eli- town council has granted me my husband, guests and I - melech of Lizensk and Rabbi the honor of hosting you dur- asked (for we did not yet have Zusha of Anipoli, wandered ing your stay. G-d has been children) "The Four Quest- the back roads of Galicia. generous to me, and you'll ions" about why this night Disguised as simple beggars, want for nothing in my home. was different than all other they journeyed from town to I've already explained to your nights. town and from village to vil- coachman how to find my lage inspiring their brethren residence, though he's sure We continued with the with words of wisdom and not to miss it - everyone recounting. "We were slaves encouragement. knows where Feivel lives..." The Passover Story In to Pharaoh in Egypt"... "In the by Elana beginning our fathers served Late one evening, the The gathering dispersed, All Its Brilliant Hues idols; but now the Omni- brothers arrived in the town and Rabbi Elimelech and Mizrahi present One has brought us of Lodmir. Seeing a lighted Rabbi Zusha went to pay their I recently started painting. Think about all the experi- close to His service"... "And I window in a large, well- respects to the town rabbi and It's something I've always ences you go through. There took your father Abraham appointed home, they meet with the scholars in the wanted to do, but never had are dark moments of black from beyond the river, and I knocked on the door and local study hall. Feivel went the time for. Not that I really and purple. There are exciting led him throughout the whole asked for a place to stay the home to supervise the final have the time; I just decided moments of orange, yellow land of Canaan"... "And he night. "I don't run a hotel," arrangements for the rabbis' that it's now or never. (I'll and red. There are calmer [Jacob]went down to Egypt," was the irate response of stay but the rabbis did not never do anything for myself moments of green and blue. forced by Divine decree. "The Feivel, the owner. "There's a show up - they had gone to if I keep waiting for the right Some moments mix together Egyptians treated us badly poorhouse near the syna- stay with the scribe. time to make it happen.) And to make brown, some make and they made us suffer, and gogue for wandering beggars. Feivel rushed to the so, here I finally am, a novice pink or turquoise; some make they put hard work upon us." I'm sure you'll have no trou- scribe's hut and fairly painter. gray. Even a clear moment or ble finding accommodations I stopped. Why on this knocked down the door. I look at an object... and experience is a mixture of there." "Honored Rabbis," he cried, many things. night - this night of redemp- what do I see? I see a color tion and freedom and hope, a The heavy door all but finding Rabbi Elimelech and and a shape. I look at my Colors, so many colors. night of protection and faith - slammed in their faces, and Rabbi Zusha before the fire, tubes of paints. I have all the You paint and you realize why on this night do we have Rabbi Elimelech and Rabbi having a cup of tea with their basics: blue, yellow, green, that your painting isn't com- to bring up all that painful Zusha walked on. Soon they host. "Why have you done red, orange, white, purple, plete without a variety of col- part of our past? Can't we just came upon another lighted this to me? It was agreed that black and green. I decide to ors. talk about the good, be happy home, whose resident, the I would host you!" paint my hand, so I examine The trees blossom, and the and move on? town scribe, welcomed them "Last time we were here, its flesh tone. Look at your air, full of pollen. The land- in and put his humble hut but without a wagon and hand. Try, if you can, to repli- I patted my big belly. The scape, full of color. It's and resources at their dispos- horses, you turned us away cate its color. child inside didn't come so al. springtime, and once again, easy. It came with many tears from your door," said Rabbi I mix red and orange, that means Passover is and failed treatments. It came Several years later, the two Elimelech, "So it is not us you white and yellow. Hmm, I see knocking on my front door. with years of injections and brothers again visited Lodmir. want in your home - we are that I actually need a bit of And I ask myself the same countless hours spent waiting This time, they were official the same as we were then - blue and a bit of green. The thing every year: "Are you in doctors' offices. All that guests of the community, but you are obviously peachy flesh consists of more ready?" No, I'm not talking was thankfully behind me. I which had requested that the impressed by our wagon and colors that I ever imagined - about the cleaning, shopping patted my belly, and I realized now-famous rabbis come for horses. You are indeed wel- and this is just the color of a and cooking. I'm not talking that the tears and the failures a Shabbat to grace the town come to host them..." hand! about the meal or the check- were an integral part of the with their presence and Now for the simple white list of things that we need for story. They were colors in the teachings. At the welcoming THE CHABAD TIMES We are not responsible for the sleeve of my shirt. Who knew the Seder. I ask myself: Am, I, Masterpiece of the making of reception held in their honor Elana, ready? Am I ready to and attended by the entire Kashruth of any product or that to get that color I need this beautiful child, no less establishment advertised in purple, black and blue? see the variety and depth of than the colors of joy. These town, a well-dressed gentle- The Chabad Times. all the colors behind the are the complex and multiple man approached them. Look at the shape. There Masterpiece called Purpose, colors of life. are curves and angles, lines the Master-piece called Life? and circles. I see a finger of Now I sit at the Seder table rectangles and triangles and It was 13 years ago, and the emotion that squares. Passover time, when I sat approaches us - the emotion down with a full, pregnant of my son's Bar Mitzvah, his Would you ever have belly. My son (who was born reading of the Torah in a expected to find so many col- a week later, on the seventh week's time - intensifies and ors and shapes in a hand, a day of Passover) was doing grows.