What are you hungry for?

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 for Friday night:  https://zoom.us.j/2389285517.

Now my daily devar Haggadah.

What are you hungry for?

We are hardwired to give. One of the worst feelings in the world is not been needed by others.

But a slave has nothing to offer. Drained of energy and time, the slave’s emotional and physical resources are depleted. With no ability to give, slaves lose their sense of humanity, feel empty and worthless, and incapable of generosity.

So we begin the Seder by proclaiming, “Anyone who is hungry should come and eat!” We are no longer slaves with nothing to give. No matter what our situation, we boldly declare that we have food in abundance and that we can’t wait to share with the world-a moment of exaggerated and piercing “largeness.”

This sentence-“Anyone who is hungry should come and eat. ”-should not be read. It should be screamed! Is announcing, “I am a giving person! I am overflowing with goodness and kindness! I have a full tank of giving to share with everyone!”

Cheryl moment when you either carried out witnessed a momentous act of extraordinary giving. (Hearing Your Own Voice Haggadah, page 24)

Most of us are used to joining large Seders with family and friends or at a congregational Seder. At my house we usually average 20 + people around our Seder table. Judy and our company prepares a feast that sometimes I think could feed the entire Israeli army. Because of the coronavirus we know why this night is different from all other nights. This year we will have the smallest Seder ever. 

I wonder if are not hungering for food, what else are we hungry for. We are hungry for cure of and healing for all those suffering the coronavirus. Some of us are hungry for companionship because we are lonely. Some of us are hungry for good leadership. Some of us are hungry for truth and justice. Some of us hunger for deeper and more meaningful Jewish life. I pray that these hungers motivates us to scream out, “I am part of the solution and will share it with you as I would with my own matzah!”