On the Seder night, as we sit down together with our children to eat our matzah and joyously celebrate our Exodus from slavery in Egypt, we will be faithfully replicating the traditions and practices performed by our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents - going back thousands of years.
Today a cry reverberates throughout the Jewish world: “Continuity!” How best to transmit our heritage to the next generation? How can we ensure that our grandchildren will celebrate their Passover with the same fervor and excitement? Allow me to share with you a thought I recently read by Rabbi Dov Greenberg, director of Chabad at Stanford University:
“It is said that inherited wealth lasts for three generations. The same applies to inherited Judaism. Today's young Jews are by and large of the fourth generation. In the fourth generation, Jewish identity is either renewed, or it vanishes.
On Passover we read of "Four Children" at the Seder table. These, one may suggest, represent four successive generations. The wise son symbolizes the immigrant generation who received a good Jewish education and still lived Jewishly. The rebellious son is the second generation, who lacking a meaningful Jewish education, abandoned Jewish identity for social integration. The "simple" child is the third generation, confused by the mixed messages of religious grandparents and nonreligious parents. The child who cannot even ask the question is the fourth generation, who no longer has a memory or context of Jewish
life.
Today's youth are the fourth generation. They do not take for granted that they will marry another Jew or establish a Jewish home, or will raise Jewish children. Nothing can be taken for granted in the fourth generation, especially in an open society with its huge marketplace of competing ideologies. The fourth generation will choose to be Jewish for one reason only: knowing the sacred history of our people, sensing the richness of Jewish life, understanding the profundity of Judaism.”
Let us therefore utilize these precious moments of our Seder to truly immerse ourselves and our families in the rich Passover spirit (leaving idle talk and ‘catching up on the latest’ for a different evening). In so doing we can truly pass the holy baton of Judaism to the next runner in this historical marathon - our next generation.
Wishing you and your entire family a joyous and meaningful Passover,
Rabbi Raleigh and Fruma Resnick