At the “Let’s Talk About Israel” Conference this past Sunday at the Buffalo Marriott, the keynote speaker, Shalom Orzach, spoke among other things, about Passover. “This is a holiday” – and I paraphrase – “where we sit around a table, discussing important issues, and don’t always agree with one another, and yet we always say, ‘See you Next Year… maybe in Jerusalem.” I loved this insight about the last line of our Passover Seder.
This is our second week in a row of difficult Torah portions. Metzora, just like its twin portion Tazria, is about blood, guts and all the things we would not want to talk about if we did not have to. To engage in conversations that are hard, we have to have a few agreements in advance. We must listen to one another respectfully. We must hear the humanity beneath one another words. We must not believe we can change one another’s mind, but we still must sit with one another. And we must promise one another that we will continue to be in conversation despite our differences. This is a hard thing to ask, but to maintain our relationships, our societies, it is something we have to be willing to honor.
So, no matter what happens at our Passover Seders let us at least agree to one thing: to see one another next year, maybe in Jerusalem, if we are so lucky.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex