Shabbat Messages

Monday was a day we’ve been looking forward to for a long time: moving day.

On Monday morning I sat alone in our apartment, surrounded by boxes, and breathed a deep sigh of relief. It was 10:26 AM and the movers were scheduled to arrive at 10:30 AM. Everything was done and ready just in time.

And then I remembered…the mezuzot! With my few last minutes I hurried around to each room collecting the mezuzot, trying to carefully remove them. I did my best to clean the residue of tape off the doorframes, but despite my efforts, tiny bits of stickiness remained. A remnant, a sign, even as we were on our way out, that this was a Jewish home.

It was not lost on me that as I was going through my own small Jewish doorframe ritual, we were approaching the day in the Jewish calendar when the Torah tells us of the Israelites marking their own doorframes in ancient Egypt. Before the tenth and final plague, God instructs the Israelites that on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, each household should take a lamb to perform a ritual:

“They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it… For that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, both human and animal; and I will mete out punishments to all the gods of Egypt, I GOD. And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:7, 12-13)

We studied this passage in the Adult Confirmation Class last week. A thoughtful question was raised and robustly discussed: Why does an omniscient God need markers on the doors of Israelite homes in order to know which homes to pass over? Surely God knew which were Israelite households, so why make the people go through this public ritual?

Perhaps, it was suggested by participants in the class, the ritual was performed not for God, but rather for the Israelites. Indeed the text says “the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you.” (Ex. 12:13) It was an opportunity for the Israelites to take ownership over their own future, to be active participants in their own redemption. God would ultimately redeem them from slavery in Egypt, but they had a responsibility as well to protect themselves and their families. For all to go according to plan, they had to be trusting, hopeful, active partners with God on the journey toward becoming a free people. 

The Seder is all about active participation: questioning, storytelling, singing, eating, explaining, blessing. But when the Seder ends, it is our obligation to stay active participants in our own Jewish story. A vibrant Jewish future is only possible when we show up with and for our Jewish community, when we continue our own Jewish learning and engagement, when we are proactive in celebrating our Jewish tradition with pride. 

And so, on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nisan (which this year fell on Wednesday), our family huddled close on our porch to say the blessing together and affix the mezuzah to the doorframe of our new home. We took turns helping to hammer in the nails, everyone active in the ritual. 

The same day in the Jewish calendar, literally and metaphorically far from Egypt and the degradation our people experienced there, far from the blood of a sacrificial worship system of our ancient ancestors. But in its own way, the ritual was the same: we actively put something in the liminal space between public and private that tells everyone who visits or simply passes by - and perhaps more importantly, tells us in every moment of every day - that this is a proud and active Jewish home.

From our Jewish home to yours, sending you wishes for an active, proud and celebratory rest of the Passover holiday and a Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Leah Fein