A Magical Fast and Fun Way to End Your Seder!

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Our family tradition is to read the “Who Knows One” prayer as fast as possible at the end of the Seder. It is such a fun way to engage the whole family and friends in such a special way to end the Seder.

I hope you enjoy our family face of “Who Knows One” at our Seder in 2019!
Speed Reading

PASSOVER HAGGADAH
“WHO KNOWS ONE”

Who knows one? I know one.
Who knows one? I know one?
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows two? I know two.
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows three? I know three.
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows four? I know four.
Four are the matriarchs; Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, on heaven and on earth.

Who knows five? I know five.
Five are the books of Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows six? I know six.
Six are the sections of the Mishnah;
Five are the books of Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows seven? I know seven.
Seven are the days of the week;
Six are the sections of the Mishnah;
Five are the books of Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows eight? I know eight.
Eight are the days before circumcision;
Seven are the days of the week;
Six are the sections of the Mishnah;
Five are the books of Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows nine? I know nine.
Nine are the months of childbirth;
Eight are the days before circumcision;
Seven are the days of the week;
Six are the sections of the Mishnah;
Five are the books of Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows ten? I know ten.
Ten are the commandments;
Nine are the months of childbirth;
Eight are the days before circumcision;
Seven are the days of the week;
Six are the sections of the Mishnah;
Five are the books of Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows eleven? I know eleven.
Eleven are the stars in Joseph’s dream;
Ten are the commandments;
Nine are the months of childbirth;
Eight are the days before circumcision;
Seven are the days of the week;
Six are the sections of the Mishnah;
Five are the books of Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows twelve? I know twelve.
Twelve are the tribes of Israel;
Eleven are the stars in Joseph’s dream;
Ten are the commandments;
Nine are the months of childbirth;
Eight are the days before circumcision;
Seven are the days of the week;
Six are the sections of the Mishnah;
Five are the books of Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Who knows thirteen? I know thirteen.
Thirteen are God’s attributes;
Twelve are the tribes of Israel;
Eleven are the stars in Joseph’s dream;
Ten are the commandments;
Nine are the months of childbirth;
Eight are the days before circumcision;
Seven are the days of the week;
Six are the sections of the Mishnah;
Five are the books of Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Ordinary to Extraordinary Lives: Rafi Eitan

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Israeli Spymaster Who Captured Nazi Leader Adolf Eichmann

Ricardo Klement was kidnapped in May 1960 just outside Buenos Aires. Rafi Eitan, a leader of Israel’s intelligence community, was in charge of the kidnapping. The team, posing as a group of men fixing a stalled car on the roadside, grabbed Klement as he exited his daily bus. It turns out Ricardo Klement was actually the infamous former SS officer, Adolf Eichmann, who served as a leader in the execution of Hitler’s “final solution.” The capture of Eichmann solidified Rafi Eitan’s legendary reputation as an Israeli spymaster.

At the same time, Israel learned that another infamous Nazi, Josef Mengele, was in Argentina. Mengele was notorious for conducting inhumane medical experiments in Auschwitz. Eitan refused to take Mengele for fear of compromising the Eichmann mission. Eichmann was taken back to Israel where he was tried and  executed. Eitan was present at his hanging.

Rafael Hantman was born November 23,1926 on the Eid Harod kibbutz in the British mandate of Palestine to Russian immigrants. He later changed his surname to Eitan. He joined the Haganah, the predecessor of the Israeli Army before he was a teenager, and was subsequently recruited to the elite branch, called the Palmach. After being wounded in the 1948 War of Independence, Eitan was  transferred to the intelligence unit, where his spying career began. It was during this time he earned a degree from the London School of Economics.

For decades he served as operations chief at Shin Bet, the Israeli version of the FBI. In 1965, he posed as an Israeli chemist visiting a nuclear fuel plant in Pennsylvania. After his visit, it was discovered that a large amount of enriched uranium was missing. Though never solved, the Americans thought the timing of Eitan’s visit was surely no coincidence.

Scandal plagued Eitan’s career while he was running the Bureau of Scientific Liaison. He recruited a U.S. Naval officer, Jonathan Pollard, to spy on the U.S. A co-worker reported Pollard was taking classified materials from the office of the Naval Intelligence Command (NIC). Pollard was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison. The scandal rocked relations between Israel and the U.S. Eitan lost his position and was reassigned as the chair of the Israel Chemical Industries where he worked until the late 1990s. In the mid-2000s, he entered the political arena and became head of the Pensioner’s Party.

Rafi Eitan died Saturday, March 23, 2019 at the age of 92.

 

Passover Menu Ideas – Menu 3

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Here are some suggestions for your Passover Seder menu!

 

Appetizer:
Stuffed Baby Artichokes
Stuffed Baby Artichokes

Entrees:
Freedom Lamb
Freedom Lamb

Golden Chicken Soup
Golden Chicken Soup

“Lucky” Matzo Balls
"Lucky" Matzo Balls

Sides:
Classic Ashkenazi Charoset
Classic Ashkenazi Charoset

Yemenite Charoset
Yemenite Charoset
To explore our other international charoset recipes, click here.

Desserts:
Rose Water Almond Cookies (Marochinos)
Rose Water Almond Cookies

Chocolate Matzo Mousse Cake
Chocolate Matzo Mousse Cake

Food for the soul:
Suitcase
When the children of Israel fled Egypt, they had to leave in the middle of the night, without much time to prepare. They couldn’t take many possessions and there were difficult choices about what to bring with them. If you had to leave home in the middle of the night, what would you bring with you?
Click here for a complete list of our Passover discussion questions.

Ordinary to Extraordinary Lives: Georges Loinger

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Playing catch over a border fence, posing as mourners and tricking German soldiers were all techniques Georges Loinger used to save at least 350 Jewish children during World War II. Joseph Urie Loinger was born to a Jewish family in Strasbourg, Germany on August 29, 1910. Later changing his first name to Georges, he became an important figure in Theodore Herzl’s Zionist movement as a teenager.

During his service in the French army, Loinger was taken prisoner in 1940 and transported to Stalag 7 in Bavaria, Germany. Fortunately for Loinger, he was not thought to be Jewish because of his blonde hair and blue eyes. His physical characteristics, along with his fluency in German, saved him from being persecuted as a Jew by the Germans. Loinger managed to escape the prisoner of war camp and return to France. There, he became part of the French resistance for a Jewish children’s aid society named Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE). Loinger explained that OSE had protected around 1,500 Jewish children whose parents were either dead or sent to concentration camps by hiding them in area homes. While the children were kept hidden, Loinger often worried about their mental and physical health and organized sporting competitions amongst the children to build their physical and spiritual strength.

A few years into the war, Loinger began organizing missions to bring the children to safety across the Swiss border. These missions included intricate ways of getting the children across the border including having them chase balls across the border during games of catch and dressing them as mourners and climbing gravediggers ladders at a cemetary border wall.

After the war, Loinger helped with the transportation of Holocaust survivors to British-controlled Palestine and wrote several books about his experiences during World War II. Georges Loinger lived a long and fulfilling life and died at age 108 in Paris, France on December 28, 2018.

 

A “Palace in Time”: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel on the Sabbath

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by Rabbi Or N. Rose

On a recent Saturday afternoon, I took the opportunity to re-read selections from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s book, The Sabbath. First published in 1951, this poetic gem has been read by countless spiritual seekers — Jewish and non-Jewish — throughout the world.

As I flipped through the pages, I was struck again by Heschel’s remarkable ability to cull from the vast storehouse of classical Jewish teachings and to present these gleanings to a diverse modern readership with elegance and force.

In Heschel’s mind, the greatest challenge facing the modern Western world is the loss of a sense for the sacred. He argues that in our attempts to master our physical surroundings through technological advancement, we have become desensitized to the grandeur and beauty of life, both in the natural world and in the faces of other people. In our rush to industrialize we have become so focused on gaining economic and political power that we have forgotten our ultimate purpose: to serve as co-creators with the Divine in the establishment of a just and compassionate world.

For Heschel, a refugee from Eastern Europe, the Holocaust is the most dramatic example of the shadow side of modernity. After all, it was Germany — arguably the great center of modern cultures — in which one of the most effective and devastating killing machines in human history was created.

But Heschel is also critical of popular American culture with its seemingly insatiable consumerist cravings, symbolized in his mind by the excesses of affluent suburban life in cities across the country.

In The Sabbath, Heschel attempts to offer a corrective to this imbalance. In so doing, he explores two basic, and intersecting, dimensions of human existence: space and time. Heschel argues that modern Western life is dominated by an obsession with space — with building, mastering, and conquering things of space. But life turns dim, says Heschel, “when the control of space, the acquisition of things in space, becomes our sole concern” (p.ix). He calls on us to reconsider our priorities and relax our attachment to “thinghood,” shifting our attention to the “thingless and insubstantial” reality of time.

It is in this context that Heschel introduces the importance of the Sabbath to modern life. For Shabbat offers us the opportunity to retreat temporarily from our work-a-day routine, from the world of space consciousness, and to enjoy the manifold gifts of creation provided for us by the Master of the Universe. Heschel describes the Sabbath as a “palace in time,” whose architecture is built through a combination of intentional abstentions (e.g., refraining from business dealings, long-distance travel) and acts of prayer, study, joyous meals and interaction with loved ones.

Most importantly, perhaps, Heschel explains that Shabbat not only offers us an opportunity for weekly spiritual communion, but it also has the potential to help shape the way we live the other six days of the week.

Will our time with friends and family make us more sensitive to the needs of other human beings? Will our time celebrating the grandeur and beauty of nature make us more sensitive to the needs of the earth? Will we be able to hold in our hearts and minds the realization that God is the supreme author of life and that we are called upon by the Divine to serve as co-creators of a just and compassionate world? In brief, can we carry with us something of the Sabbath consciousness through the rest of the week?

More than sixty years after Abraham Joshua Heschel published The Sabbath, and thousands of years after this great religious institution was first recorded in the Hebrew Bible, Shabbat remains both a spiritual oasis and a bold challenge to all of us who seek to live both productive and reflective lives.

Ordinary to Extraordinary Lives: Simcha Rotem

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Through a secret passageway under the streets of the Poland’s capital city Warsaw, Simcha Rotem led more than 80 Jewish ghetto survivors to safety after the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising. Simcha Rotem was born February 24, 1924 in Warsaw, Poland and was a member of the Akiva Zionist youth movement from an early age.

Only 15 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Rotem decided to join the Warsaw Ghetto’s Jewish Combat Organization, ZOB, in 1942. Rotem soon earned the nickname “Kazik” derived from the Polish name “Kazimierz” meaning “someone who destroys opponent’s prestige/glory during battle,” as a result of his fearlessness in the underground passageway of Warsaw where he saved many Jews from either murder or deportation to the Treblinka death camp. Rotem’s original journey through this hidden passageway was to meet with ZOB commander, Yitzhak Zuckerman, on the Gentile side, to discuss an escape for the fighters. The two members ended up trapped as Nazi commanders discovered the passageway. With the fighting and burning of the ghetto raging above and determined to help his fellow survivors, Rotem discovered a passage to the ghetto through an unguarded sewer opening. There he found one of the last surviving leaders in the ghetto Zivia Lubetkin, and her team of 80 fighters. Rotem led them through the sewers to an outlet in a forest just outside of the city where they could safely escape.

After WWII, Rotem played an instrumental role in the Beriha organization facilitating the immigration of European Jews to Mandate Palestine and eventually made aliyah to Israel himself in 1946 where he worked until his retirement in 1986. Simcha Rotem was awarded Poland’s Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 2013, yet still criticized the Polish administration for their failure in recognizing the role of Polish citizens in German extermination of Jews during the war. Rotem powerfully stated: “Only once the Polish society truly faces the bitter historical truth, revealing its scope and severity, will there be a chance that those horrors will not be repeated. Therefore, I vehemently oppose the distorted law recently passed in Poland, meant to eradicate from historical recollection the heinous acts the Poles committed against the Jewish people during that dark time.” Simcha Rotem died in Jerusalem on Saturday, December 22, 2018 at the age of 94.

Time to Open the Shades

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Have you ever just decided to change your attitude? To change your life perspective without a specific catalyst? When have you decided to allow light into your life?

Last year, I was prescribed bedrest for 40 days. As a result of a serious sports injury and subsequent surgery, my doctor told me to lie on my back with my left leg (the leg which had been operated upon) above my heart for 23 hours a day, for forty days. (You can hear me discuss my bed rest in my TedX Talk, How Nothing is What Matters the Most.)

At the time of my surgery, I was also experiencing a state of profound personal and professional turmoil. I was in extreme pain — physically and emotionally. I was truly suffering. I was mostly alone in my bedroom for forty days and forty nights. It was a transformational experience.

At the beginning, I was in intense physical pain from the surgery. Once the nerve block wore off, there was incredible pain. I knew I was not going to die — but I felt I was. I was also very sad about the upheaval in my personal and professional life.

A friend told me there is a blessing in every journey. I was determined to find it. I decided I would do no work. Given the pain medication, my judgment and concentration were certainly compromised — I simply could not function in a business context. I am grateful for such supportive colleagues during this time. Later, I realized I needed this time to reflect. I also decided not to watch any TV or movies. I simply read books about spiritual transformation (see My Bed Rest Reading List), wrote in my journal, and meditated. I also found myself staring at the walls for hours and hours each day. I really wanted to go inside myself.

I kept the drapes and window shades in my bedroom fully drawn and kept the room dark. I did not want any light coming in. I don’t know why… I think I was suffering so intensely that darkness seemed appropriate.

I really had no sense of time. I just laid on my back for 23 hours a day. Luckily my daughter visited me in the morning before school and at night after school. We had really meaningful conversations. I was otherwise alone except for some wonderful nurses who helped me with food, bathing, and medication.

It was dark. I was in intense physical and emotional pain. I was truly suffering.

I looked to the Torah for inspiration. I felt a shared connection with David when he entered the cave in verses (1 Samuel 24, 1-7, JPS). In the passages leading up to this verse, David was running for his life. King Saul assembled his men to find and kill David. Wrestling with his demonic thoughts and life-threatening circumstances, David entered the cave in verses (I Samuel 24, 4-5, JPS).

4And he came to the sheepfolds along the way. There was a cave there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the back of the cave. 5David’s men said to him, “This is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘I will deliver your enemy into your hands; you can do with him as you please.’” David went and stealthily cut off the corner of Saul’s cloak.

David was alone in the dark and heard “voices” of his “men”. This can be interpreted as his wrestling with his thoughts in the darkened corner of the cave.

Suddenly, in a moment, King Saul entered the very same cave where David was hiding. Instead of following the voices that would lead away from the will of God, David cut off a corner of King Saul’s robe. Even that small action caused David’s heart to be smote and David repented to his men for it. David did not kill King Saul despite his legitimate worries that King Saul was looking to kill him. When they both left the cave, King Saul was overcome with the genuine restraint and purity of motives that David exemplified in his actions. Upon exiting the darkness of the cave, King Saul saw the light shine on David’s righteousness. King Saul rewarded David accordingly.

One day. I decided it was time to open the shades and allow the light in. I don’t remember any particular reason. I just realized I needed to change my attitude. I was no longer going to suffer. I was no longer going to be in pain. It was time to fully embrace my compromised state as temporary — not permanent. My bedroom was now full of light each day. I decided to embrace my circumstances. I had a chair brought in and was so happy when my rabbi and a few other very close friends came to visit. I enjoyed meaningful one-on-one conversations with all of them. It was truly transformative.

I also thought about Exodus and the 8th Plague (Darkness) which afflicted Egypt.

Exodus 10:21-23, JPS
The Plague of Darkness

21Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be touched.” 22Moses held out his arm toward the sky and thick darkness descended upon all the land of Egypt for three days. 23People could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings.

For background is it important to understand the meaning of three important words. “Mitzraim” is the Hebrew word for Egypt and literally means “narrow place”. This has both geographic and spiritual meaning. The geographic connotation is that the vast majority of the population of Egypt lived in close proximity to the Nile river. Thus, despite the vastness of the land of Egypt, the Egyptians were basically restricted to narrow strips of land on either side of the Nile. In addition, “narrow place” referred to a narrow mind. Those Hebrew slaves who remained in Egypt had narrow minds. It was the nature of being a slave. Mentally closed off from the blessings surrounding us and serving a false God, Pharaoh with no opportunity to worship the one and living God. The journey of Exodus celebrates our collective journey from slavery in mitzraim to wandering in the wilderness and coming to know God who brings us to a land flowing with milk and honey and to finally achieving freedom God promises us in The Promised Land of Israel.

“Evrit,” in the Hebrew language means to cross over. The Hebrews were those who crossed over the Reed sea (Sea of Reeds) to reach the wilderness. Israel is the name of Jacob and means he who wrestles with God and man and is able. There is an introspection and aspiration in the meaning of Israel. Thus, during the 9th plague, while those with narrow minds in the narrow place were afflicted with darkness. Those who struggled with introspection and aspiration to experience God’s freedom achieved the blessed Promised Land of Israel. The blessing of living in the light — true goodness. Israelites are always blessed with light.

During my initial days of bed rest, I wallowed in my pain and suffering. I had a very narrow perspective. I stayed in the darkness.

Then one day, I decided. I just did. It was time to open the shades. To allow light in. To allow light into my soul. My thoughts expanded. My anxiety diminished. While my physical circumstances, compromised as they were, remained the same, my mental outlook transformed completely.

When I think about the Bible allowing light in, I go back to Genesis 1. The light of Day 1 divided light from darkness. God proclaimed the light of Day 1 tov / good.

We really don’t need a source of light to allow for light. The light of Day 1 occurred before the sun, moon, and stars of Day 4. Darkness comes first. God showed us that you can divide light from the darkness. God did not take away the darkness.

I realize now that sometimes in dark circumstances, we just need to decide. We just need to decide that it is time to open the shades and allow light in. Into our rooms, our hearts, and our souls.

Genesis 1:1-5, JPS
The Beginning

1When God began to create heaven and earth — 2the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water — 3God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.