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 5: Take the Israelite out of Egypt, and Egypt out of the Israelite Tradition has it that as Passover commemorates our past redemption, the Messianic era will also begin on Passover. That’s why we invite Elijah the Prophet to our Seder, in the hopes that redemption is at hand. But redemption, we are taught, comes in two forms, political and personal. The first redemption was political – the Israelite nation was freed from Egyptian slavery. The second, then, willbe personal – removing “Egypt” from the heart of each Israelite. Redemption will come if we turn our hearts from the enslavements of narrowness, callousness, and indifference.