Dear Friends,
The white smoke rose and I did not get the call. Consequently, I am still your rabbi and the pope is still Catholic. I say this not to minimize the significance of the naming of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. As you no doubt know by now Pope Francis is the first non-European pope in more than 1200 years, the first Latino and the first member of the Jesuit order to lead the largest church in the world. This is very exciting and important news, well worth our attention. Mazal tov to Pope Francis and to our Catholic neighbors on the election of a new pope!
At the same time, we are still Jews. As such, we have other business to attend to of great importance. For example, preparing for Passover. Is your house ready for Passover? Are your plans for your Passover seder/s all set? I apologize if I have just raised the blood pressure of some of you with those questions. Depending on your personal practice and whether you are playing host for a seder, Passover can be a bear when it comes to planning and preparation. To that end I write this missive to offer some assistance:
- If you do not yet have plans for the second night of Passover, a week from this coming Tuesday night, March 26th, do I have a deal for you! You don’t need to cook; you don’t need to set the table; you don’t need to find the Hagaddahs and clean out the matzah crumbs from last year. You just need to sign up for Temple Sinai’s seder on the second night of Passover. The price is $36 per person. Children 12 years and younger are $18. (The charge for children has been lowered so yes, it is different than the prices you’ve seen advertised.) While the deadline has officially passed, for you we will extend it to this Sunday, March 17th. But, we do need your RSVP by this Sunday. Follow this link to the place on our web site with the information and registration form: http://www.templesinaibc.
org/images/passover%20seder% 20flyer%202013.pdf If for some reason this link doesn’t work just go to the web site and click on the message on the home page about the seder. Or just email info@templesinaibc.org. - If you are cleaning out the chametz from your home and don’t know what to do with it, do I have a mitzvah for you! Many of us, present writer included, typically go through our shelves, put all our chametz in bags and take it to the basement. Then when the holiday is over we go down to the basement and shlep all the bags back up and put them back on the shelves. There is certainly nothing wrong with that. It’s a good Reform interpretation of how to make one’s home kosher for Passover. But, how often in packing and unpacking those bags do you think, “no one is eating this stuff; why am I schlepping it up and down the stairs? Who needs it?” You think about throwing it out but then feel guilty about the wasted food. This year, instead of feeling guilty or annoyed, feel good about yourself and your family by donating your chametz to people who really do want and need it. All you need to do is bring youropened and unopened non-perishable chametz (leavened products) to Temple Sinai by Sunday March 24th. (That’s a real deadline; no extensions!) There will be bins placed on the ground floor near the entrance off the parking lot next to the elevator. The Temple’s Brotherhood, Sisterhood and Paul Winter Helping Hands Committee are teaming up to run this collection and will take all of the chametz we collect to Eva’s Shelter and the Center for Food Action. If you don’t know whether something should be considered chametz, you can email or call me with questions. I promise to confuse you further.
May the pope remain Catholic and be a positive force for stronger Catholic – Jewish relations. May we remain Jews and have a Happy, zeisen (sweet) Passover!
Rabbi Jordan Millstein
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