PESACH SEDER

    As we walk through the stores, we can feel that Pesach is in the air.  So many are running around in preparation of this magnificent Yom Tov  

   I would like to share with you a Hasidic story; When the Baal Shem Tov had a difficult task before him he would go to the woods , light a fire and meditate in prayer, and what he had set out to perform was done. When a generation later the Maggid of Meshritz was faced with the same task he would go to the same place in the woods and say, "We can no longer light the fire , but we can still utter the prayers" and what he wanted done became a reality. Again, a generation later Rabbi Lev of Saasov had to perform his task and he too went into the forest and said, "We can no longer light the fire, nor do we know the secret meditations belonging to the prayer, but we do know the place in the forest to which it all belongs and that will have to be sufficient". And sufficient it was.  When another generation had passed and Rabbi Israel was called on to perform the task, he sat down on his chair in his home and said, "We cannot light the fire, we cannot speak the prayers, we do not know the place, but we can tell the story of how it was done.” And the story he told had the same affect as the actions of the other three.
    Understandably, this profound anecdote clearly describes the decline of the sacred, but at the same time reflects upon the trials and tribulations that each generation goes through, and how they recover the holiness of the past which gives them the strength and the courage to face the present and the future. 
     This is Pesach and the entire Seder in a concise and cogent and meaningful way.
    Kierkegaard said it well when he explained the concept of "Holiness" as "Wholly Other ", as an experience unlike any other.”

     Pesach is a time when we expierence such an extraordinary feeling of awe, wonder, mystery and majesty. It excites our admiration, it invites our adoration, and stimulates our devotion to Hashem.
  This feeling of great excitement is present when we sit down at the Seder, though somewhat exhausted from all the preparations, with much Simcha as we recite in unison,

שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה . 
    As we prepare for this years’ Seder, let us gather with our families, as they did in years of yore, and to renew special relationships with our friends and loved ones  and to strengthen our bonds with Hashem in a most productive way with our  הלל ותשבחות.
     Let this Pesach refresh and revive our jaded spirits, dampen our cynicism, and remind us of the great opportunities that are ours to achieve as we open the door once again for Elijah the Prophet and show our preparedness to welcome our מלך המשיח.