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Over the past several years a new kind of Pesach obser-
A Message from our Rabbi vance has taken hold. We’ve been partially transformed
from a community that goes away for Pesach to a commu-
Rabbi Dale Polakoff nity where many are staying home to celebrate with family
and friends. The change has not been an easy or a painless
one. Families that never made Pesach were suddenly faced
with the challenge of mastering such a transition. Children
whose preparations for Pesach often involved packing
were now helping to prepare. The sights and experiences
of travel were replaced by the sights and experiences that
have marked preparation for Pesach in Jewish homes for
generations.

I’m not naïve enough to think that when the dangers of the
pandemic move on, countless families will never again go
away for Pesach. I am hopeful, though, that the lessons and
experiences of Pesach at home will be the gift that contin-
ues to give. And even when we do go away, we take those
Rabbi Menachem Benzion Sacks was born in Jerusalem in values and traditions with us.
1896 to a family that had lived in Israel for six generations.
At the age of 18 he received semicha from Rav Avraham Ellen and I wish you a Chag Kasher V’sameach.
Yitzchak HaKohen Kook who was the first Ashkenazi Chief
Rabbi of what was then known as British Mandatory Pales-
tine and who became the father of religious Zionism. Rabbi
Sacks moved to Chicago in 1923 and worked to found the Rabbi Dale Polakoff
Jewish day school movement as a way of ensuring Jewish
survival following World War II. Rabbi Sacks passed away in
1987.

A collection of Rabbi Sacks’ homiletical writing was pub-
lished in 1978, entitled Menachem Tzion, in which he offers
a beautiful idea related to Pesach with a much broader
application.

The opening pasuk of Sefer Shemot records the journey of
Yaacov’s family to Egypt. “These are the names of the sons
of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with
his household:”

Rabbi Sacks interprets the phrase “each coming with his
household” - ish u’beito bau - to mean that Yaacov’s family
brought their houses with them. Obviously, he’s not refer-
ring to the physical structures that we refer to as our hous-
es, but rather Rabbi Sacks is suggesting that what makes
up a Jewish home is much more transportable than four
walls and a ceiling. A Jewish home is comprised of values
and traditions that have existed independent of physical
structures for generations. It is these values and traditions
that Yaakov and his family brought down to Egypt. The
values and traditions that make up the Jewish home protect
the family more than any physical structure could.
The values and traditions that make
Rabbi Sacks writes that in every diaspora, no matter where up the Jewish home protect the family
the Jew finds himself, he brings his home with him. Despite more than any physical structure could.
the challenges he might face and regardless of his capacity
to build a physical home, the home the Jew does build is on
firm ground and stands solidly if it is filled with the values
and traditions of the Jewish home.

SCOPE Magazine Passover 2022 4