by Judy Gruen | Feb 19, 2004 | Beginner
In his riveting autobiography, “Fear No Evil,” Natan Sharansky recalled one of the many Passovers he spent in a Soviet prison. When his captors confiscated the small piece of matzoh a fellow prisoner planned to slip him in his punishment cell, Sharansky...
by Howie Beigelman | Feb 19, 2004 | Beginner
The Sabbath before Passover is called “Shabbos HaGadol,” the Great Sabbath. What great occurrence do we commemorate on the Great Sabbath? The answer is that on the Sabbath before the first Passover, all Jewish households designated a sheep for their...
by Rabbi Avi Shafran | Feb 19, 2004 | Beginner
He ascended the steps to the bimah, the platform where the Torah is read, with the strangely hurried movements of someone who would rather be traveling the other way. This middle-aged fellow, apparently something of a stranger to a shul, had just been “called...
by Rabbi Avi Shafran | Feb 19, 2004 | Beginner
Despite the late hour and exhaustion (not to mention wine), many a Jewish mind has wondered long and hard during a Passover Seder about all the Haggadah’s “fours.” Four questions, four sons, four expressions of redemption, four cups. There’s...
by Rabbi David Fohrman | Feb 19, 2004 | Beginner
This year, as you sit down to the Seder table, ask yourself a question: Exactly what should I be thinking about as I take that first bite of matzah or first drink of wine? What kind of experience do the authors of the Haggadah want me to have? We all know that Pesach...
