Rabbi Rick Jacobs

Do you ever wonder why almost all Jews celebrate Passover but when it comes to Shavuot, the numbers are usually meager? Is it because Passover is all about freedom while Shavuot is about responsibility? Or is it because the creatively elastic ritual called seder takes place at home while the more conventional Shavuot is synagogue-based?  Or maybe it’s that Pesach focuses a lot of attention on young children? The first ritual act our little ones perform is to ask questions of their elders and then later we count on their sense of the possible as they open the door, believing that Elijah might in fact be there. For too many, bar and bat mitzvah lead to a modern day exodus as young people take their leave of formal Jewish learning before they’ve even had a chance to swim in the proverbial “deep water” of the Jewish tradition.

A less well-known part of the Holocaust is that the Nazis also rounded up gays and lesbians, forcing them to wear pink triangles on their clothes so they could be easily recognized and further humiliated inside the concentration camps.

Should we avoid prickly subjects at the seder? Steer clear of talk about candidates, platforms, policies and anything potentially objectionable for the sake of a happy holiday?

The challenges that confront us as a nation and as Reform Jews are complex and varied. But what remain constant are our commitment to Torah and the imperative of speaking truth to power.