Rabbi Knopf's Blog

The Talmud teaches that 30 days before Passover, we should start learning about the festival and its meaning. In that spirit, over the past several years, I have offered "30 Days of Liberation," a brief message on each of the 30 days leading up to Passover, drawn from the wisdom of the holiday and the Exodus story. I am thrilled to announce that I am in the process of completing my first book, which will be a compilation of those messages from years past. This year, for “30 Days of Liberation,” I will be sending out brief selections from the book. I look forward to sharing the book with you all in its entirety when it is completed. Meanwhile, I hope you find these messages meaningful and inspiring. Please feel free to share/forward.


Day 24: Body and Soul
The Talmud records a debate about how to begin telling the Passover story. Do we start with our enslavement in Egypt, or with our ancestors worshipping idols? Is the story physical/political, or is it psychological/spiritual? The answer, of course, is both. As beings of body and soul, our life’s journey always has both physical and spiritual dimensions. A spiritual person cannot long forsake his/her physical needs, and “a human does not live on bread alone.” The person of faith must be concerned with politics, and the worldly must attend to the moral dimensions of their deeds. We all begin in idolatry and enslavement. Where we go from there is up to us.