Thoughts for the week -25 March

Thursday, March 25

Mah nishtanah ha-layla ha-zeh, mi-kol-ha-leilot? What is the difference between this night and all other nights?

Even though we will again not be in-person, this year’s Pesach experience will undoubtedly be quite different from last year. Not least because we hope that with the vaccine we will soon be able to return to our pre-Covid sense of normality.  

Pesach this year will also be marked by the significant developments surrounding our new home on Stanmore Hill and the inevitably poignant service to mark the deconsecration of 39 Bessborough Road on 30 March.

Covid has taught us a valuable lesson about ourselves: a Jewish community is so much more than a building.  We will remain a strong and thriving community even when we will be without a permanent home for a while – who would have thought that we could have the extraordinary programme of high profile events and speakers we have had over the past year – which continues with David Baddiel on Wednesday 31st March

For our ancestors their time in the wilderness became one of the most creative and impactful moments in Jewish history. May we too look at the time we will spend away from a permanent home as a time of opportunities in which we can explore new minhagim (traditions) and develop old ones and explore different way.  

I wish you all Chag Pesach Sameach and hope to see you on Zoom over Pesach

 

March 25, 2021