The important message of Kiddush at the seder

Good news everybody! High Holiday Cantor, Cantor Scott Eckers and I are working together so that we can share the Kabbalat service with you via the miracle of the Internet this Friday night at 5:30 PM. if I don’t have your email address and you send it to me, in a few days Good news everybody! High Holiday Cantor, Cantor Scott Eckers and I are working together so that we can share the Kabbalat service with you via the miracle of the Internet this Friday night at 5:30 PM. Here is the link:  https://zoom.us.j/2389285517.

Now my daily devar Haggadah.

The important message of Kiddush at the Seder

Kiddush is recited each Shabbat and each holiday. Rabbi Soloveitchik presented a fabulous insight of his understanding of the role of Kiddush at the Seder. While the Kiddush on the night of the Seder parallels that of all the other holidays, it is also singularly related to Passover.

To be a slave is to have no control of one’s own time. A slave also loses all sense of time. Time is no longer his own when the slave is controlled by his master; he has no control over time or the ability to sanctify it.

When Jewish slaves were freed from Egypt, they became masters of their own time. Their use of time was in their hands.

Any time we recite Kiddush we are sanctifying the day. At the Seder, Kiddush takes on a special and unique meaning. Reciting Kiddush tonight is an expression of freedom from bondage. We are stating that our time no longer lies in the hands of others. The story of freedom begins with Kiddush, and expression of the ability to sanctify time. Kiddush is an integral part of the story said at the opening of the Seder since that is the time the Torah prescribes for accounting and celebrating the story of our transition from slavery to freedom. (The Night That Unites Haggadah, page 49)

I hope that you are staying home keeping yourself safe and flattening the curve. We all have more time on our hands than ever before because are not rushing from here to there. As certain sense we are freer now to do was really important like call a friend we haven’t spoken to for a long time or reading that good book that’s been sitting on a shelf, or studying some Torah at one of the many websites. You can even read my daily #dafyomi reflections on the Talmud at rabbigarygreene.blogspot.com.