Passover Guide 12,13,14,15-22 Nissan, 5768 • April 17,18,19,20-27, 2008
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
P 12,13,14,15-22ASSOVER Nissan, 5768 • April 17,18,19,20-27, GUIDE 2008 PLIGHTE M RS LA HOW TO PASSOVER the soulful meaning, how to seder, history, customs, blessings, schedules & how to celebrate. Special instructions for this year’s Saturday night Seder. man. He was also a truly liberated person. He per- sonified freedom. When observing the Rebbe’s SOME conduct in extending himself to all, in reaching out Celebration! to the furthest corners of the globe, in freely offering 3 REBBE’S MESSAGE his personal counsel to all who sought it, one could Matzah After Midnight not but be struck by the spirit of openness with which he did it all. 4 FOUR QUESTIONS BEFORE He gave freely of his ideas, allowing – nay, encour- YOU BEGIN THE SEDER THOUGHts aging – all to copy them. He never copyrighted them Passover 5 THE SEDER and he would often say to use someone else’s name hat separates the men from the boys? The The Practical How, What and assumption, of course, is that “the boys” if it would be more effective. the Meaning of Items on the Ware “small” people, while the men are He was a free Jew and he imparted his freedom Seder Plate “big” people with big personalities. to all. A child is busy with himself or herself and cannot He opened our eyes to the true meaning of free- 7 SOULFUL SEDER see beyond their own needs and desires, and often dom. Even now, almost fourteen years after his Join us as we perform the they withhold from sharing their belongings with physical passing, the potency of his message only Seder; as our bodies and souls others. increases with the passage of time. His liberty is experience and celebrate liberation and freedom today An adult, on the other hand, makes room for contagious. another person, accepts the ideas and critique of If you will, the creation of this brochure is, in part, 20 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU others, and shares with others. In fact, the “bigger” an illustration of this spirit. PASSOVER AND DURING THE one is the more he or she gives to others, and even A number of years ago, when I learned about a HOLIDAY puts the other’s needs before his or her own. new, exciting Passover guide created by Lubavitch How to prepare for Passover (Indeed, don’t we as parents feel “small” when of the West Coast, I asked them to allow us to print and what to do once it’s here, we respond to our teen’s behavior in kind, building it in our Celebration brochure. They immediately for the duration of the holiday up a head full of steam and stooping to their emo- responded positively without asking for anything in tional level – when all they really want, expect and 24 STORIES: THE REBBE AND deserve is a mature parent. Or consider the inappro- return. WIC; THE REbbE’S ADVISE priate role reversal that takes place when we put our In the spirit of this brochure (see The 15 Steps, How the Rebbe helped interests before – and even at the expense of our pages 7-19), their spontaneous response brought to America’s poor. own children’s good – blurring the line between mind the following thoughts: child and parent.) Bondage Mentality: We worked hard on it. It’s 26 WHAT’S HAPPENING AT ours. It is a gorgeous piece, and we should be the LUBAVITCH OF WISCONSIN The ability to consider others before one’s own A photo gallery of recent interests makes one a “big person.” And the bigger first to publish it. We should get all the recognition events the person, the greater is the span of his or her con- and credit for it. Freedom Mentality: This is cern and the further is his or her reach. for all Jews to appreciate the Seder and Passover. 30 PASSOVER SCHEDULES AND I am drawn to these thoughts in the context of It was created in order to be shared with all. So, BLESSINGS the upcoming Holiday of Freedom and the personal please be our guest, it’s yours as well as ours. liberation we are meant to experience. I remember thinking how lucky we are. This is 31 COUNTING OF THE OmER As we mature, as we grow “big,” we discover that the sense of freedom the Rebbe imparted to us all. SCHEDULE the more liberated we are inside, the less encum- Reach out to everyone everywhere, help, elevate, 31 SALE OF CHOMETZ bered is our relationship with others. The more lend a hand, without consideration of self. By doing “free” we are , the less busy we are with our own CERTIFICATE this you will truly be free. selves, the more giving we are toward our family, our peers, our community and the world at large. Following in the Rebbe’s footsteps indeed leads The celebration of Passover is for me closely to Yetziat Mitzrayim, to personal redemption, to free- CELEBRATION! Vol. 39 #4 March 2008 dom from smallness and moving toward the liberty bound with the days before it, when my friends and Published 6 times a year by Lubavitch of I would celebrate the anniversary of the birth of our of sharing and giving. It helps us experience the Wisconsin dear Rebbe, Rabbi Meanchem M. Schneerson, of injunction “in each generation one must see himself, 3109 N. Lake Drive • Milwaukee, WI 53211 righteous memory. as if he himself has gone out of Egypt.” Phone: (414) 961-6100 The proximity of this auspicious anniversary to the FAX: (414) 962-1740 holiday of Passover is, I think, quite appropriate. Best wishes for a happy & kosher Passover. e-mail: [email protected] www.chabadwi.org For the Rebbe was, by all accounts, a very “big” Rabbi Yisroel Shmotkin 2 Check out our weekly online magazine at www.LubavitchofWI.org One returns to that original faith, The Rebbe’s Message that same faith which shone so bright and hard because it wasn't saddled with knowledge and experience. Now, however, faith coexists with Matzah After Midnight – indeed feeds upon – knowledge Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. and experience. The roots of faith Schneerson, OBM, by Yanki Tauber reaches deeper than them, its crown towers higher than them, but it also leans against them and is fortified by them. child is blessed with faith. The world is good, people ••••• are good, and being good is simply a matter of Matzah is the most basic icon of the festival of Passover. The following the dos and don'ts of life which G-d had biblical name for Passover is “The Festival of Matzahs.” For told Mom and Dad. eight days, this flat, “unleavened bread” displaces all leavened AThen the child grows up, encounters some bad stuff, and forms of the staff of life. And on Passover eve, the three seder finds that following the rules doesn't always pan out the way matzahs, enthroned on their special plate at the head of the one imagines. Morality muddles into an amalgam of maybes, table, take center stage in the seder rituals. ifs and usuallys. Faith alone isn’t enough anymore: one also The sages of the Talmud and the Kabbalah give matzah needs intellect, sensitivity, feeling, will and desire to navigate different – even conflicting – names: “The Bread of Affliction,” this thing called life. “The Bread of Poverty,” “The Bread of Humility,” “The Bread When one first marries, they are blessed with faith. A of Instruction,” “The Bread of Faith,” “The Bread of Healing.” husband or wife is the most good-hearted, intelligent, beautiful, And then there's the matter of timing: Just when was the talented, caring and loving person in the universe. Love for matzah born? At the beginning of the seder we announce, each other will get them through anything. Then the marriage “This is the bread of affliction which our forefathers ate in ages, acquires wrinkles, an irregular heartbeat and bouts the land of Egypt...” But later in the evening, we recite: “This of dementia. Love alone just isn’t enough anymore: one also matzah which we eat, for what reason [do we eat it]? Because needs intellect, sensitivity, feeling, will and desire to maintain the dough of our fathers did not have time to become leavened the relationship. before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be One begins in faith, and moves on to experience. But there is He, revealed Himself to them and redeemed them.” also a third stage: a stage in which the faith reemerges. A stage Thus we have pre-Exodus matzah and post-Exodus matzah. in which is discovered that one’s spouse really is the greatest, Or, as they're referred to in the teachings of Chassidism, pre- most wonderful person in the universe. A stage in which one midnight matzah and post-midnight matzah. discovers that the world is good, that people are good, that the For matzah, the bread of faith, has two faces. It is the faith G-d-given dos and don’ts are the formula for a meaningful life. of “poverty” which thrives in pristine souls free of the tangles No, it's not as simple and straightforward as youthful faith sees of intellect and the burdens of experience. And then, when it it. But this mature, complex, thoughtful, willed and inspired emerges from the other side of the night, it is a faith enriched faith has something that youthful faith didn't have: it has a by the very elements that stifled it in its years of exile.