A Passover Message from Rabbi Daniel Dorsch
Rabbi Daniel Dorsch shares his thoughts and inspiration for Passover this year.
We can’t let Passover itself “pass us over” this year.
As I walk around the aisles of the local East Cobb supermarkets, I am dumbfounded by the amount of Passover food. It grows every year. I hear stories from my congregants of how forty or even twenty years ago, Jews had only a few options across the city to buy kosher amenities. Today, a Jew no longer has to leave East Cobb to do Pesach shopping.
Jewish Atlanta has grown dramatically. We’ve doubled in size as Jewish communities in the northwest suburbs are not only in East Cobb, but Woodstock and Canton. The number of synagogues has blossomed. We have not one or two, but many supermarkets across the city competing for our business come Passover time.
Unfortunately, as we grow in numbers so does the risk of our own complacency when it comes to observing holidays like Passover. I get it: it’s a hard and expensive holiday. I was raised in New Jersey, and when I moved back after ordination, I lived in a wonderful Jewish bubble in which it was easy for folks to take their Judaism for granted. With the ambience of Passover in the air, some told me that each year watching Charleton Heston with family on the couch was enough. The local grocers were full of kosher for Passover food. But others did not feel it was all that necessary to be involved.
It would be easy to let Passover pass us by without so much as a Dayeinu. Alas, we live in a different world post-October 7. We now understand that Passover in the year 2025 will not happen by osmosis. The story will not be passed from one generation to the next by watching the Prince of Egypt.
Instead, we must make a Seder. We ought to sit at the table with family and friends and tell the story of the Exodus. It’s a story that still has much to tell us.
Passover is never without its challenges. But given the state of the world, the fragility of our freedom, and the need to instill our children with a pride in Judaism, I do not believe that it’s one where we can afford to take shortcuts this year.
Rabbi Dan Dorsch is the senior rabbi at Congregation Etz Chaim in East Cobb. He is also the outgoing president of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association.
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