Friday, April 15, 2011
Erev Pesach
Jerusalem

Dear Members of Temple Sinai:

I offer you my greetings from Israel, and wishes to you all for a very happy Pesach holiday! As you can imagine, preparations for Passover throughout Israel are very exciting, with school children out for a 2 1/2 week vacation period and many people traveling, the whole country cleaning and preparing for Seder, much discussion of which restaurants are kosher for Passover, and much of the population speaking the language of freedom from liberation.

My family and I will be telling the story of the Hagaddah in Jerusalem this year -- so the final line of the Seder, "Next year in Jerusalem!" is a literal reality for us. In truth, however, Israelis have added a key word to that line, so here at the end of the Seder we will say, "Next year in a Jerusalem Rebuilt," with the clear implication that not just Jerusalem, but the entire world, is still far from our dream of completion and perfection, that we still have much work to do to reach our vision of Tikkun Olam, a world repaired and liberated. Yet, we taste of that dream as we retell our people's ancient story of redemption from slavery.

From our sabbatical experience in Israel, my family and I wish you and your dear ones a very happy Pesach!

- Rabbi Andy Vogel