Page 4 - HaMizrachi #28 Pesach USA 2021

TORAT MIZRACHI

Continued from page 3

the importance of politics but also its
limitations and dangers, relationships
between husband and wife, parent and
child, grandparent and grandchildren,
and siblings, are the most important
basis of freedom…James Q. Wilson put
it beautifully: ‘We learn to cope with the
people of this world because we learn to
cope with the members of our family.
Those who flee the family flee the world;
bereft of the former’s affection, tutelage,
and challenges, they are unprepared
for the latter’s tests, judgements, and
demands’.” 5
We hope to soon be able to celebrate
with our broader families and friends
and once again engage fully in commu-
nal and public life. We hope to soon
move outwards and return to shul and
society. But just before that, as we sit
together in our homes as a tight family
unit on Leil HaSeder, conveying and
prohibitions and educational experi- family followed by the travails of Yish- discussing the essence of our story as a
ence, it is all about the home. mael and Yitzchak. The family saga con- people, let us appreciate the quintessen-
tinues with Yitzchak and Rivka and their tial role of home and family, in human
The lesson is clear.
family, Ya’akov, Rachel, Leah and theirs, history in general and in Am Yisrael in
At the very birth of the Jewish people, and of course a special focus on Ya’akov’s particular. Home sweet home!
the Torah emphasizes the most essential sons, the tribes of Israel. Chag Kasher VeSameach!
foundation of any national enterprise –
the home and the family. The Torah is teaching us that a strong,
sustainable and successful nation can
Any successful society must be built on only be built through secure homes and 1 Shemot 12:3.
these core ideals. A society which under- families. Life must be built from the 2 Ibid. 12:19.
mines the integrity of home and family inside out, from the inner family circle 3 Ibid. 12:27.
tampers with the very cement upon to the outer communal and national 4 The prevalent translation of Pesach as Pass-
which it stands. It is no coincidence that space. Rabbi Sacks, of blessed memory, over, that G-d passed over or skipped over
Sefer Shemot, which deals with the birth articulates this so beautifully, as he the houses, is based on Rashi (Ibid., verse 23),
of our nation, is preceded by Sefer Bere- always does: Rashbam (verse 27), and others. Rashi (also the
Targum) mentions an alternative meaning as
ishit, which revolves around individual “People who look to the state, politics well – ‘had mercy on’ the houses.
homes and families.
and power, to deliver the good, the 5 Covenant & Conversation, Family, Faith and
The first parshiot deal with the founding beautiful and the true – the Hellenistic Freedom (Vayechi 5780). The Wilson quote is
families of humanity – Adam and Chava tradition – tend to regard the family from “The Moral Sense” p. 163.
and their progeny, followed by Noach, and all it presupposes in terms of fidel-
his wife and theirs. We are introduced to ity and responsibility as a distraction. Rabbi Doron Perez is Executive Chairman
Avraham and Sarah and their extended But for people who understand not just of the Mizrachi World Movement.

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