Rabbi Hillel Norry
Rabbi Hillel Norry shares his Passover thoughts with you.
This Year, Balance Is the Spirit We Most Need.
Passover is usually a time of luxury and abundance. Though the haggadah has us begin with bitterness and slavery, the rabbis mandate copious wine, and it isn’t long into the seder night before we are celebrating liberation and eating to our fill. Such a tone suits the holiday that celebrates spring/aviv, and expansiveness. It is the season of growth, verdure and abundance, and our tradition asks us to steep ourselves in that satisfying yomtov spirit.
This year, I believe something different is called for. This year let’s remember those who are most needy, most alone, still enslaved or incarcerated, dependent or degraded. Let’s remember to balance and temper our exuberant spirit with a sense of modesty, restraint and conservation. This Pesach, on the holiday we most associate with being together and sharing the full seder table, let’s keep in mind that many struggle to have a seder, and many more will, this year, be alone.
I suggest we each spill one ADDITIONAL drop of wine from our second cup, to properly mark our loss, so that we can then sing “Halleluyah” at the end of the seder celebrating the plentiful spring and liberty.
Rabbi Hillel Norry teaches martial arts and spiritual arts.
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