A passover message from Rabbi Nochem Tenenboim

On Wednesday, April 5, the Jewish community will celebrate the holiest time of the holiest celebration of the year — Passover. It’s a festival that marks the definitive moment in our history as a nation: our miraculous liberation from centuries of slavery in Egypt. We mark this day by reliving our journey from servitude to freedom, recalling the bitter times and thanking G-d for His salvation.

And we do it all at home.

Of course, we gather at shul — synagogue — to pray, as we do each day, but there are three unique mitzvot — commandments — that we do on the first two nights of Passover, and none of them take place in the synagogue.

We eat matzah, the unleavened Bread of Affliction that our forefathers ate in Egypt. We eat the maror, bitter herbs that bring to mind the harshness of slavery. And we tell our children the story of Passover, so that they may tell their children one day. We do all this during the Seder, a 15-step feast laden with meaning and tradition which takes place entirely at home.

In fact, the very name of the holiday is evocative of an at-home celebration. On the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nissan, in the year 2448 from Creation, G-d visited the Tenth Plague upon the Egyptians. At the stroke of midnight, every firstborn Egyptian would be struck dead.

And G-d instructed Moses to tell the Jewish people to stay home that night.

Each family gathered at home and celebrated the first-ever Passover Seder, eating the Passover lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. And G-d promised to “pass over you, and there will be no plague to destroy [you] when I smite the [people of the] land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12, 13)

Each year, we remember the miracles and relive that first Passover feast, and we do it at home.

Because while the synagogue — and communal gathering — has a key role in Judaism, what is at the core of our survival and continuity as a people is the Jewish Home. Children who grow up in a Jewish home build Jewish homes of their own passing on our faith and tradition to the next generation.

That’s why, in the weeks leading up to Passover, I have a custom of reaching out to hundreds of local Jewish families here in greater Hewlett: not to invite them to come to synagogue, but instead to visit them at home. It’s beautiful to see the traditions and celebrations — whether it’s a mezuzah on the door, a kiddush cup or Shabbat candles, or other Jewish items — and to share handmade shmurah matzah to be enjoyed together, as a family, during the Passover Seders.

And finally, we invite each of you to join our extended family at the Chabad House of Hewlett — your Jewish home away from home — to celebrate the second Seder with us on April 6. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please RSVP at JewishHewlett.com/Seder

This Passover, let’s remember the importance of creating and celebrating the Jewish home. Wishing each and every one of you a kosher and happy Passover.

Tenenboim is the director of the Chabad of Hewlett.