Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein’s
Thought for the Day 

The metaphor of the flight from slavery to freedom and darkness to light chronicled in the Bible as the Exodus from Egypt, has never felt more apposite than it does this year. From last Passover to this Passover and from last Easter to this Easter, the incremental changes over the year are obvious.

We have taken an unforeseen, unexpected and extraordinarily fraught and challenging journey this past year, horribly punctuated by the loathsome and venomous attack in Atlanta last week. The killings highlighted the increased number of attacks on and vulnerability of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to the poisonous fangs of an abhorrent hatred swelling in this country. So even as we celebrate Passover and Easter — our holidays of freedom and rebirth — let us forthrightly acknowledge that we have much work to do to bring about the freedom, decency and justice that form the foundations of our religious traditions.

This past year we have suffered loss, but we have survived and evolved and emerged very different from what and who we were a year ago. Last Pesach and Easter, we had no way of knowing which new lives would bless us and our families this year, or sadly whom of our loved ones we would lose, those whose memories we will always carry with us and whose names we call to mind every day. So now, with the melting of the winter snow and the onset of spring we look forward to buds appearing on trees and tulips blossoming forth. Our spirits are lifted. And as more of us are vaccinated, the possibility of travel, family gatherings, the normalcy of being with friends, and the simple pleasure of walking free of fear of infection, become possible. This is part of a freedom we have missed terribly!

This Passover and Easter have a poignancy different from what they have ever had before.

When we Jews gather around the Passover Seder table to tell the story of our ancestors’ flight from slavery to freedom and ask the question, “Why is this night different?” I believe that the question for all of us this year should be, “How are these times different? How am I different?”

As we celebrate our spring holidays, may we, as our ancestors did at this season, embrace with some urgency the hope and joy of promising days ahead. I wish Chag Sameach to those who are celebrating the Festival of Passover. To those who are celebrating Easter, I wish you a most meaningful and uplifting holiday. And to those who will be commemorating Ramadan next month my wish for you is a Ramadan Mubarak.

I wish our Asian American and Pacific Islander neighbors much comfort and strength. We must, and will, stand with you.

And we at 92Y wish everyone good health, a renewed spirit and genuine and uplifting joys ahead.

Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein