April 2025

Letter from the Rabbi

Dear Temple Israel Community,

In the traditional Passover Haggadah we read each year at the Seder, we declare: “In each and every generation, a person is required to see yourself as if you yourself had come out of Egypt,as it is said: “And you shall tell your child on that day, ‘Because of this the LORD acted for me when I came out of Egypt.’” (Exodus 13:8).

Each year, our experience of celebrating Passover is meant to help us to see ourselves as becoming free. As we lean to the side and linger over a long, elaborate meal, we embody what it feels like to be free and, through telling the story of our people’s ancient redemption, we pray for increasing freedom in our lives and in the world at large.

For some of us, this will be a particularly challenging experience this year for one reason or another. As I write, I am keenly aware that events in our local community, in the land of Israel, in Albany, Washington, and around the world are of significant and urgent concern to many members of our community.

With all of this in the air and more, we may be tempted to not give Passover the attention it is due. However, our foundational festival of freedom offers us precisely the spiritual sustenance we need in these times. On Passover, even as we eat simple bread (Matzah that is called the bread of affliction), we taste the feeling of redemption. On Passover, we are commanded to hold two poles together at once: the reality of our unredeemed world and the reality of our freedom.

This Passover, there will be several special meaningful opportunities to celebrate in community! Over the first days of Passover, we will welcome a visiting Rabbi Deborah Anstandig to read Torah and offer sermons while I am celebrating the first days of Pesach with Rav Talia in Ithaca. During the intermediate days of Passover, we will gather in-person and online to pray, sing, and study together. During the final days of Passover, we will put to use new melodies we learned from our Artist in Residence Zach Mayer as we sing Hallel and then we will remember our loved ones passed on as we recite Yizkor on April 20th.

Please, join us for as many of these opportunities to come together in community over Passover, to celebrate our liberation and to pray for complete freedom for all! If you need a place to go for Seder or have an open seat at your seder, please be in touch with me so I can make pairings. Finally, if you are unable to physically remove all the Chametz from your home, please authorize me to sell your Chametz to a non-Jew on your behalf.

May this Pesach bring the beginning of our Geulah Shleimah, our complete redemption, may we each see ourselves as becoming more free together, and may we make room in our hearts for the abiding brokenness of our world even as we prepare for our great festival!

Chag Pesach Sameach v’Kasher! Wishing you a happy and kosher Passover

L’shalom,

Rabbi Micah R. Friedman

הרב מיכה שמחה פרידמן