Passover advice from Pittsburgh’s spiritual leaders: Be intentional and thoughtful
'Passover, and the story contained within the Haggadah, is our people's oscillating family narrative that helps us realize nothing is impossible'
There’s no shortage of insights offered at the seder. This year, though, Pittsburgh’s spiritual leaders have one suggestion: Be more deliberate.
Holiday preparations differ, but as reality sets in that Passover is here, “we will have to address how we are going to celebrate,” Cantor Rena Shapiro, of Beth Samuel Jewish Center in Ambridge, told the Chronicle.
Each week in Ambridge, Shapiro and her congregants sing and recite “special prayers for the hostages,” she said. “It’s always on our minds.”
As of April 7, 59 hostages — fewer than half are believed to be living — are estimated to still be in Gaza. By the time Passover arrives, those hostages will have spent more than 550 days in captivity.
With Pittsburghers taking to familiar tables, Shapiro hopes they remember sobering realities 6,000 miles away.
“Passover is all about redemption,” she said. “We will be praying fervently for it.”
Across the globe, Passover celebrants will recite “Next year in Jerusalem.” Despite the passage’s inclusion at the Haggadah’s end, Congregation Beth Shalom’s Rabbi Seth Adelson wants Pittsburghers to consider the Jewish state, and wider region, earlier in the evening.
“On this festival of freedom, the most important things we should keep in mind are bringing the hostages home and bringing freedom to the people of Gaza who are held captive to the tyrannical reign of Hamas,” he said.
Whether by breaking the middle matzah, spilling wine or opening the door for Elijah, the seder affords multiple ways to invoke memory and conversation. Pittsburghers should add one more practice this year, Adelson said.
“Place a yellow flower on the seder table, and make note of it when you open the Maggid section with, ‘Kol dikhfin yeitei veyeikhul (let all who are hungry come and eat),’” he said. “As I am sure many of us discuss current events around the table, it might be worth actively reflecting on what it will take for real peace to blossom in the Middle East, not merely ceasefire.”
Rodef Shalom Congregation’s Rabbi Sharyn Henry said that as the holiday approaches a long-held teaching remains top of mind.
“There is a midrash,” Henry recalled, “where the angels are celebrating when the Egyptians were drowning, and God says, ‘Why are you rejoicing? Those are my people, too.’”
For Henry, that midrash is particularly instructive.
“I don’t think it’s possible to think about Passover this year, and freedom, without thinking about all the people that are suffering and drowning,” she said.
With so many individuals in distress, “it’s hard to be totally rejoicing,” she continued. “I’m glad that the Haggadah reminds us to [consider] that.”
Rabbi Yisroel Altein, director of Chabad of Squirrel Hill, is directing Pittsburghers to heed the holiday’s character this year.
Passover begins Saturday night April 12. Preceded by Shabbat, the seder offers a unique lesson, Altein said.
Often, people associate Shabbat with negativity — Jewish law counts 39 categories of work prohibited on the Sabbath — but in lieu of seeing the day as a period of restriction, its primary function is to be a “day of rest,” Altein said. “This is a positive,” as Shabbat presents opportunities to contemplate holy thoughts, spend time with family and “be in a positive space.”
With the seder slated for Saturday night, a buoyant mindset should be pervasive.
As the Haggadah implores readers to remember they are no longer slaves in Egypt, Altein suggests that people “look at it as a positive. What am I? What is my identity?”
Some Jews see themselves through others’ eyes, but that perversion, he said, often occurs when people view themselves as subjects of scorn and persecution. “Rather than the antisemite giving me my identity, maybe it’s time for us to think of God. He took us out of Egypt to make us a people, to give us the Torah. A lot of times we forget that following the words ‘Let my people go’ are the words ‘so they may celebrate a festival for me in the wilderness.’”
The conclusion of the biblical verse is a reminder that the Exodus occurred “so we can become the Jewish people,” Altein said. Passover this year, like Shabbat, begs the question, “‘What does it mean to be a Jew?’” Hopefully, the answer is found in “not what I’m not, but what I am.”
Heading into the holiday, Rabbi Aaron Meyer, of Temple Emanuel of South Hills, has heard from congregants and community members a “tremendous sense of swirling uncertainty about the world we live in.”
Whether those fears are spurred by economic, geopolitical or other factors, Meyer considers the research of Emory University psychology professor Robyn Fivush a salve.
“She refers to the oscillating family narrative as an idea that in every family’s story there are good times and bad times, and that by telling those stories, you build resilience in future generations,” Meyer said. “Passover, and the story contained within the Haggadah, is our people’s oscillating family narrative that helps us realize nothing is impossible.”
The present period is challenging, but “in times of duress, I think the Jewish community has a choice to make, a choice that happens unconsciously if we don’t confront it,” he said.
“When the going gets tough, do we lean in or do we lean out?” Meyer asked.
“What I believe we need to be doing right now — no surprise to hear from a rabbi — is leaning into the Passover experience rather than trying to escape it, as temporarily comforting as that may feel.”
Rabbi Hindy Finman said she, too, hopes Pittsburghers embrace Passover traditions this year.
Specifically, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s senior director of Jewish life wants local residents to reconsider karpas, a ritual in which seder-goers eat a green vegetable dipped in saltwater.
Historically, saltwater has been said to represent the tears shed by ancient Israelites who were enslaved in Egypt.
Finman said a friend posited the briny dip could symbolize something different.
“We sometimes think of it as only tears of sadness, but what if karpas also became the placeholder for tears of joy,” Finman said.
Reinterpreting the ritual could go one step further, she continued. Karpas is associated with tears, but what if people considered tears shed versus those withheld? What if people cried “about the natural things in life, like parents aging — which is normal but hard and difficult — but my tears are all going towards these things that are essentially human-created problems that didn’t nearly need to be created,” Finman asked.
Perhaps by beginning the seder with an acknowledgement of karpas and saying, “we don’t always get to choose why we’re crying and what’s causing us to cry,” it’s another expression of freedom, she said.
For Rabbi Yaier Lehrer, of Adat Shalom Synagogue, one of the main ideas of Passover is “remembering who we are and where we come from.”
“I think it’s important for us to recognize that and the rich tradition that we have sitting at our seders — certainly in the midst of the current climate of the world with regard to Jews,” he said.
“Despite the fact that much of the rest of the world doesn’t want us around, we’re still here. And that’s in large part to our being able to carry on our tradition in the midst of conflict and hate.”
Strife isn’t always a foreign concept, as friction could even exist around Pittsburgh seder tables.
Still, Lehrer hopes celebrants focus on “the things that brought us together,” he said. “We’re all there presumably to celebrate something Jewish. We’re all there to celebrate our history and who we are.”
Identifying differences is easy, he continued. “That’s what creates conflict. But if each of us, and if every one of us, no matter what, manages to embrace those things which bring us together, that could be a very pleasant experience.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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