On the 27th of Nisan, we commemorate collectively and on the national level the 20th century Shoah in Europe. New investigations have proven that the number 6 million is inaccurate, with the true figure closer to 7.5 million Jews who were murdered or died in the Shoah.
The people of my generation born in the 1920s and 30s bear witness not to one Shoah but to two, both emanating from the two faces of Aisav …
To be read aloud by the leader of the seder right after the main course has been eaten…
Part A: A frum family living in any one of the great Torah centers in the world; they could even be your next door neighbors in Boro Park, Flatbush, etc.
Part B: Pesach in the Holy Land
Today in the absence of the Bet HaMikdash only two Torah mitzvot prevail: To relate the Pessach saga to one’s offspring and to eat matza.
However there appears in the hagadda text the word “chayav” (obligated) with regard to an act which is not formally a Torah requirement, nor a rabbinic one – but it goes to the heart of the Pessah seder, it is:
(on this night) Every person (man and woman) is required to perceive himself as if he was present at the Exodus from Egypt.
As binding as it is, this obligation is only as vivid as one’s imagination. However, my wife and I (and others), have gone through a life experience which at the Pessach seder induces an authentic feeling of the enormity of the historical episode.
Tuesday, when it was 11:00 A.M. in Washington, it was 6:00 P.M. on the 13th of Adar in Eretz Yisrael – the beginning of the Fast of Esther.
We are witnessing a repeat of the Purim episode of 2500 years ago.
Persia is once again threatening to destroy every man, woman and child in Eretz Yisrael, in one day with nuclear weapons.
Today the 7th of Adar, is the date of Moshe Rabbeinu’s birth and the day of his passing away 120 years later. Moshe died on the mountain of Nevo in the tribe of Reuven, and his body was moved by HaShem to an unknown location in the tribe of Gad.
Beginning with parashat Shmot, Moshe’s name is mentioned in every parasha until the end of the Book of Devarim, except for one – our parasha Tetzaveh. HaShem dictated to Moshe every world to appear in the Torah and He commanded Moshe to omit his own name from this parasha in order to serve as an everlasting memorial to Moshe’s self-sacrifice when he declared to HaShem, that if the Jewish nation would be destroyed because of the Golden Calf episode, then his own name should be omitted from the Torah. Interestingly, the 7th of Adar falls out every year in parashat Tetzaveh.
