Kiddush, Kadesh and Naming our Potential Pesach is the quintessential holiday where we celebrate the birth of our nation. Our collective voices were heard and, as a people, we were liberated from the oppression of Pharaoh. And yet, as we begin this evening of the celebration of liberation, the first command and the first word is given to the individual. We are not told, kidshu, in the plural, we are told kadesh , you, as an individual must sanctify. This command hearkens back to the verse in Vayikra, קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י יְ-ה אֱלֹהֵ-יכֶֽם׃, “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (19:2). Rabbi Eli Sadan shares this idea in his Haggadah as he writes, “There is no service of God, there is no free will at all and there is no value.. without the recognition that human beings are free, free to go after the will of God. That is the foundation of the holiness of our lives, the holiness of the individual and of the collective as a nation. The ind
Posts
Showing posts from March, 2021