The book we use on Seder night is called a Haggadah,
which means “the telling,” but the most important
message of Passover — freedom — is beyond words.

Dear Members and Friends,

Great news!  The Jewish people are celebrating Passover again, for the 3,300th time (approximately).  Same table, same matza, same bitter herbs, same togetherness. Sounds routine, doesn’t it? So why do we keep doing it — Jews and many of our non-Jewish friends? Well, maybe there is something we like about routines? Or better, something we need? And not only that, we work so hard to make it happen. The book we use on Seder night is called a Haggadah, which means “the telling,” but the most important message of Passover — freedom — is beyond words. Perhaps this explains why everybody keeps coming back.

Imagine yourself working for a boss who says that one of his or her essential rules at the office is that you take breaks. To top that, the boss insists that you have fun on your breaks. Sounds great. Sign me up. Actually, I already have that job; it’s called being Jewish. Our boss demands, or rather commands, that we take weekly breaks. Essentially, our whole half-a-year spiritual journey from Passover until the High Holidays can be bracketed by Shabbat — from Shabbat HaGadol to Shabbat Shabbaton. Shabbat HaGadol (the Great Shabbat) is the Shabbat before Passover and Shabbat Shabbaton (double Shabbat) is Yom Kippur.

One of the explanations the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat p. 87) offers for why this Shabbat is called the Great Shabbat is because the Israelites left Egypt on a Thursday, which means that the eve of Passover was Wednesday night. Therefore, when God commanded the Israelites to take lambs and hold them for four days before slaughtering them, it was on Shabbat. (Exodus 12:3). What the Talmud is suggesting is that the experience of leaving Egypt begins on the Shabbat before, and is incomplete without it. The spiritual climax on the Jewish calendar, the double Shabbat of Yom Kippur, is rooted in that Shabbat in Egypt. The road to freedom begins within slavery, and we actively need to take a step.

It is the Shabbat in Egypt that sets us free, a Shabbat we pack for the journey in the wilderness and becomes every Shabbat we keep in perpetuity. It reminds us that we were slaves and now we are free and that freedom is the only thing worth being slaves to. From being slaves to Pharaoh, we become slaves to God — the boss who insists we should be free to take a break.

The journey we started on the Great Shabbat that will peak on Yom Kippur includes 26 Shabbatot. When you schedule your next vacation or weekend getaway on the North Fork, remember to include Tifereth Israel, too. Please designate a Shabbat or two to spend with us. To strengthen us and yourself. To quote a phrase I recently heard: “In terms of our salvation, we do not do nothing.”

Happy Passover.

—Rabbi Gadi Capela