Page 12 - HaMizrachi #28 Pesach USA 2021

TORAT MIZRACHI MIZRACHI SCHOLARS-IN-RESIDENCE

Sivan Rahav Meir and Yedidya Meir

Seven Thoughts for Pesach

The Right Way to Prepare for the world and goes free through great one else can see it, to look at the world
Pesach | Pesach cleaning days are miracles. Pesach is to take a bruised and positively without falling into the pit of
1not the easiest days of the year, to put wounded slave and to whisper in his complaint; to be grateful and to know
it mildly. “All of this cleaning is because ear that he is not just a number. He has how to fix.
we are wealthy. Not me, personally – all dreams, feelings and strengths. He has a
of us. Every family lives in their own purpose. Pesach is a holiday of the great Freedom is to hold back from honk-
home. There’s a room for the parents, struggle of a nation and the readiness for ing angrily at the driver who spends a
a kitchen, a bathroom. Our houses are a long and difficult journey, for a process second too long at the light.
full of furniture, clothing, utensils and of deep, internal clarification. Pesach is Freedom is the ability to see every
food, so that we leave entire packages of a holiday of simplicity: flour and water person not as a means to an end - not
snacks in drawers and forget sandwiches in an oven. “Know how to enjoy the as something to control or manipulate -
we never even tasted in bags,” my friend simple things,” said the officer. “Think but as an end in themselves, as another
once told me. How far we are from the about Pesach. Live Pesach. Don’t let the human being.
ancient halachic discussions regarding shallow discussions steal your Pesach.”
a communal oven, or the one outfit a Our Mayflower | In 1947, David
person owned! I’m sure that every one What is Freedom? | Pesach is Ben-Gurion spoke before a UN
of us has at least one great-grandparent called ּונ ֵ תּור ֵ ח ן ַ מ ְז, the time of our 4commission of inquiry. In order
fre
who would have jumped for joy to see 3 edom. What is freedom? Rabbi to explain our connection to Israel, he
the immense well-being in which the Eyal Vered says: spoke about Pesach:
poor of our generation live. As my friend Freedom is to take only what is needed, “300 years ago, a ship called the May-
said: “Every so often, I remind myself to even at an elaborate wedding which flower sailed to the New World. This
stop the thoughts of how much I need to serves enough food for an elephant herd. was a great event in the history of
clean and cook, and simply think about England and America, but I wonder if
how much I have.” Freedom is the ability to refrain from there is a single Englishman who knows
hearing or reading lashon hara, even if
2 everyone speaks it and it bubbles up on exactly when this ship set sail, and how
Don’t Steal our Pesach! | A
many Americans know? Do we know
all the websites.
military officer told me the
how many people were on board and
following story: “This morning at
and yourself that you have a wife and
the bus stop, I heard two elderly women Freedom is the ability to tell your boss what was the state of the bread they ate
when they left?
complaining that there is nothing to kids, and you will not be able to work
eat on Pesach. Yesterday, a friend endless hours, to leave when the kids Thousands of years before the May-
bemoaned the difficulty of eating are asleep and return when the kids are flower set sail, the Jews left Egypt. Jews
matzah and getting stomach aches. asleep. from around the world, even in America
Over the last few days, I’ve Freedom is knowing how to live with and Soviet Russia, know exactly when
been seeing dozens of posts the money you have, and not with the they left: the 15th of Nissan. And every-
on the pain of cleaning for money you don’t have. one knows exactly which bread the Jews
Pesach. They’ve stolen our ate: matzah. To this day, Jews around the
Pesach!” Pesach is the most Freedom is the ability to control your world eat matzah on the 15th of Nissan
revolutionary holiday in words and remain silent, not to respond and tell the stories of the Exodus and
human history: a nation of to everything. the difficulties the Jews have endured
slaves dares to challenge Freedom is the ability to work hard to since being exiled. They conclude with
the greatest empire in find the good even in places where no two statements: ‘This year, we are slaves;

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