Spring has sprung in our beautiful Sutton Place neighborhood. Thanks to SAC and their dedicated volunteers, roses are springing up on First Avenue and for those who celebrate, Passover is in the air.

The Passover Seder dinner is perhaps the longest running annual ritual on Earth. For over three thousand years, families have been gathering around a festive table to recall our humble beginnings as a slave nation to the powerful Pharaohs. The Exodus from Egypt formed the Jewish nation as it set the stage for the giving of the Torah, establishing a moral code and a universal truth for all time.

Thus, the Seder the centerpiece of the Passover experience, is filled with lessons for people of all faiths. The Seder is a time of unity and gathering, but notably, all those assembled are not the same. In a particularly well-known part of the Haggadah reading, mention is made of four sons: The Wise, the Wicked, the Simpleton, and the One who Cannot Ask. One may ask (since one can), why is the One Who Cannot Ask even at the table, let alone the Wicked child who challenges the experience altogether?

The answer is a truth for all time: We all belong at the table.

There are moments when humanity and the world at large seem charged with tension. With elections looming, war in the homeland of the Jewish people, and chaos and destruction continuing, not to mention rising antisemitism here in the US and worldwide, along with post-Covid trauma– there is much potential for disagreement and strife these days, at any dinner table.

So, we would do well to remember the lesson of the Seder: we need not all agree, we need only to show up and remember: there is room for everyone, of every persuasion, at the table.

On behalf of my wife Raizy and our children, I wish you a healthy Spring, a Happy and Kosher Passover and true freedom with peace on Earth.

I hope to see you around the neighborhood,

Rabbi Shmuel Metzger

Chabad-Sutton, NYC, Chabad Sutton Place

Torah Literacy ● Mitzvah Observance ● Community

To donate click here