Ma Nishtanah haLaila HaZeh?
Why is THIS night different from all other nights?
It's finally here - the night above all other nights for the Jewish People (and by extension, for all humankind) - the night that the light of our redemption begins to shine.
How can light shine at night?
How can slaves become free overnight?
How can a Nation be born in a single day?
How can millions of people pack up a few things and leave a country they've been living in for hundreds of years in only a matter of hours?
EXODUS ...a movement of the people - EXODUS, a movement of the One-And-Only Living and Eternal G*d, blessed be His Holy Name, Who sent His destroying angel to kill the firstborn of Egypt as the climax of 10 plagues, while His Chosen People (and those who feared G*d and clung to them) were safe inside homes where the blood of the first-ever Paschal lamb was seen on the sides and above the doors of the house by the Angel of Death, so as to say: NO ADMITTANCE HERE.
Tonight we gather with family and friends, there is not one who is excluded. Tonight we dine as kings and queens, reclining in splendor, surrounded by our best "stuff" (to remind us of the spoils - the "bling" of Egypt - that we brought out with us) and we tell the story to our children - the story of how we were once slaves in Egypt, but now we are free -
Free to be you and me.
Free to serve HKBH, free from being slaves to our inner (and outer) "Pharoah."
There are many mitzvot connected to Passover - the removal of chametz (leaven) from our households, the baking of matzo, the seder itself - but the MAIN mitzvah is to TELL THE STORY.
We're telling the story for you all day long here on Radio Free Nachlaot - in song, in shiurim, until about 6pm tonight - and then we're turning off the radio for Pesach.
Don't worry. We're Jews living in the Holy Land of Israel, the Land of our redemption song - we only keep ONE DAY of Yom Tov here, so we'll be back Tuesday night with more great music, talk and Torah.
Wishing all our friends, fans and family world-wide a Kosher v'frelichin Pesach Sameach - have a wonderful, happy Passover - let us rejoice together that we once were slaves and now are FREE, thanks to the deliverance that HaShem visited upon us, even when we didn't really deserve it because, according to the Midrash, we had sunk so low in Egypt that we were at the 49th Level of Impurity.
How can the Holy One, Blessed Be He, redeem a people so almost-lost in impurity in one night?
HOW? He has His Mysterious Ways. Read all about them in the Hagaddah - and celebrate them with gratitude and humility, and let us all sing our Redemption Songs together, as one people ...
Pesach is coming! Pesach is coming! REDEMPTION IS COMING ... ZION TRAIN IS COMING OUR WAY!
Streaming the best music, talk and Torah 24/6 from an undisclosed location, deep inside Nachlaot - Jerusalem's coolest neighborhood - to the World!
Nachlaot is the Greenwich Village / Haight Ashbury of Jerusalem - rhymes with "rock the boat, skin the goat"
Nachlaot is the Greenwich Village / Haight Ashbury of Jerusalem - rhymes with "rock the boat, skin the goat"