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, I offer a brief message each day leading up to Passover, drawn from the wisdom of the holiday and the Exodus story. Feel free to share/forward.  -Rabbi Knopf

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.