A Jew is a Jew - Bo

This week, in synagogues around the world, we read of the Jewish People listening to their leader Moses describing what’s going to happen at the Passover Seder: (Exodus 12:26)

 

(I paraphrase) “When your rebellious child asks you, ‘mom, dad, what are all these burdensome traditions you’re doing here tonight?’ you will relay the miracles and redemption from Egypt.”

 

When the Jewish People heard this from Moses, they bowed down in an expression immense thanks. Why? What good news evoked their sense of thanksgiving? That they were destined to have rebellious children who would mock tradition?

 

The Chassidic masters offer a very moving explanation:

 

At that moment the Jewish People came to understand a profound truth. Even these rebellious children would forever remain “children”; linked and connected to their parents, to their people, and to their G‑d. Indeed, the holiness of the Jew is – for eternity - inherent, intrinsic and innate to his or her very essence. Even the rebel among us is essentially Divine. Even his or her questions stem - not from carelessness and apathy, but - from a profound sense of belonging, consciously or subconsciously.

 

And this is what inspired such profound joy and thankfulness in the hearts of the Jewish people. 

 

Late one night, my colleague, Rabbi Ephraim Silverman, director of Chabad in Marietta, Georgia received a phone call: “Please come over to my house now. My wife is on her deathbed, she wants to see you. It’s urgent.”

 

Rabbi Silverman arrived at the home to find Lisa lying in bed with end-stage breast cancer. “Rabbi, I am Jewish, but I married out. My husband is a wonderful man and we had a good marriage. But there is a part of me that he could never understand. It is not his fault. It is the nature of reality.”

 

“My time is short. Our son Mathew is ten years old. He is my only child. He will be orphaned from his mother. That is why I summoned you tonight. I beg you, promise me, that you will Bar-mitzvah my boy and guarantee that he gets some type of Jewish education.”

 

Rabbi Silverman promised. Lisa sighed with content and later that evening returned her soul to her maker.

 

Rabbi Silverman did not forget his vow. When Mat turned twelve, he called his father to prepare Mat for a Bar-mitzvah.

 

The father’s reply was cold. “I am not Jewish. I remarried a Christian woman. Mat is growing up in a completely non-Jewish home.”

 

In the inimitable Chabad style Rabbi Silverman would not let go so easily. He insisted that the boy would never forgive himself when he grows older and discovers that he did not fulfill the final wish of his mother. Mr. Wilson consented.

 

Mat began learning Judaism with Rabbi Silverman for close to a year and arranged a beautiful Bar-mitzvah ceremony and feast. Mat was called up to the Torah, put on tefillin, and delivered a moving speech of inspiration and depth.

 

No doubt, together with the large Christian contingency of Matt’s father’s and his new wife’s relatives in attendance at Chabad, we are assured that Matt’s dear mother Lisa came to celebrate her son’s life and destiny as a Jew.

 

As our Rebbe taught us all: Never ever give up on a Jewish child. Never ever doubt the holiness and connection of a Jewish soul. 

 

Fruma and our children – Malka, Yankele, Shimi, Mendel, Mushka, Riva & Rachmiel –join me in wishing you a Shabbat Shalom!