18 Apr SEDER ALL YEAR ROUND

My mother, the Rebbetzin a”h was the
featured speaker at a hotel for Pesach,
and our family was fortunate to join her.
It was Seder night. The tables were
beautifully set, my children dressed in
their Yom Tov best. There was a palpable
excitement in the air, as everyone looked
forward to the Seder.
As we went to wash our hands for
Hamotzie, my then teenage son, Yosef
Dov, noticed an elderly man sitting at a
table for one, making a solo Seder.
When we settled down at the table, Yosef
Dov had something to say. “How can we
enjoy our Seder when there’s someone
sitting alone? Didn’t we just say ‘All who
are hungry, come and eat. All who are
needy, come and join us…’?”
Dov was right. We promptly went over to
invite the gentleman to join us, for which
he was most grateful.
“All who are hungry…. All who are
needy….” There was certainly no lack of
food on the table, but the words “All who
are needy” were with us.
We learned that one can do hachnossas
orchim, the mitzvah of inviting guests
even while on a Pesach program. It isn’t
necessarily a hunger for food. Sometimes,
it’s a hunger for companionship, a thirst
for friendship. The Haggadah opens
with an invitation to the Seder table. How
do we understand this unusual invite? An
invite extended at the last minute, on
Seder night, after we have already recited
Kiddush.
Howard Schultz, founder and past CEO
of Starbucks, wrote an essay about his
life-influencing experience while on a
mission with other corporate executives
to Israel. One of the group’s stops was for
a meeting with Rabbi Nosson Tzvi
Finkel zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva (Dean) of The
Mir, the largest rabbinical school in
Yerushalayim. Rabbi Finkel entered the
room and turned to his audience of
successful businessmen. “What was the
lesson of the Holocaust?” he asked.
“Never again”, answered one participant.
“Not to be a victim or a bystander”,
chimed in another.
Mr. Schultz thought both to be good
answers, but Rabbi Finkel had a different
idea in mind. The rabbi said, “The power
of a blanket”.
His listeners looked up, their faces
puzzled. Rabbi Finkel spoke of the
terrible conditions in the concentration
camps. Of six men, crowded together to
sleep on a hard wooden bunk made for
one. He spoke of the freezing cold nights,
for which the Nazis provided only one of
the six with a thin tattered blanket.
The person who received the blanket had
a choice to make. Will he wrap himself
with the blanket, or will he pull it over the
others. Rabbi Finkel continued, “It was at
this defining moment that we learned the
power of the human spirit. Because we
pushed the blanket to the five others”.
The rabbi concluded, “When you return
to America, take your blanket… take it
and push it over five other people.”
“All who are hungry, all who are
needy….” There are all kinds of hunger,
all types of need. It can be a hunger for
friendship, a listening ear, an
understanding smile, an accepting soul.
It is up to us to open both our home and
heart. To be there for our fellow. To pull
“our blanket” over others in need.
There are so many ways to be there for
others. “Kol dichfin, all who are
hungry, kol ditzrich, all who are
needy…” Not just Seder night, but
every night of the year. Perhaps this is
one reason the Seder opens with
inviting others in, relaying to us a
powerful message. To be a “we”, and
not a “me”. To be part of Team Am
Yisroel. To look out for one another. To
offer a helping hand. To live the words
of the Torah, “V’ahavta l’rei’ah’cha
kamocha, And you shall love your
neighbor as yourself”. (Vayikra/
Leviticus 19:18) To make room in our
heart, no matter the place or
circumstance.
As the news reported, a brutal storm hit
Montreal hours before this Pesach began.
Tens of thousands — including a large
section of the Jewish community — were
left totally in the dark without any power.
When twenty-four hours passed, with the
temperature dipping to below freezing,
the situation became dire. The rabbis in
Montreal felt that it was quickly becoming
a life-threatening situation, especially for
the elderly, infirm, and infants. Following
rabbinical guidance, Chaveirim of
Montreal immediately jumped into
action. It was Seder night, but that didn’t
matter. They reached out to a sister
organization, Chareirim of Rockland
County, New York.
A group of New York Chaveirim members
immediately jumped into action. They
left their families and Seders, many still
dressed in their kittels, and loaded up a
truck-full of generators, heaters, fuel and
other electrical equipment. They arranged
for the truck to be driven up to Albany,
where a team of Montreal Chaveirim
members met up with them for the second
leg of trip back to Montreal.
That night, they lived the words of Kol
ditzrich, to be there for all who are in
need.
When the brothers sold Yosef, it was sinas
chinam, unwarranted hatred and jealousy
that brought our ancestors down to Egypt.
It was the same sinas chinam between
brothers that brought the destruction of
the Bais HaMikdash. And, as Rav
Kook zt”l teaches, it will be ahavas
chinam, pure love for each other, that will
bring about the building of the third and
final Bais HaMikdash.
We begin the Seder with an invite to our
table, for that is the essence of being a
Jew. It’s time to take the words of the
Seder to heart and be there for one another
all year round. By doing so, we will
surely hasten the final redemption.