Day One (Exodus 12:21-51)

Is there a real reason we are still missing this vital part of the Passover celebration?

Assimilated Jews, intermarried Jews, you-name-it type of Jews, all circumcise their sons, and almost all sit down to a Passover seder. Why, what do these two commandments have that the others don’t?

Wherever one finds oneself, whatever one is doing, there is a purpose to be realized and spiritual profits to be pursued

Though hailing from a 500-year line of rabbis and religious thinkers, trained in traditional Lithuanian yeshivahs and with a Ph.D. in philosophy, he provided almost no systematic grounding in Judaism to his own children.

How do you prepare your daily fare—boiled, baked, stewed or grilled? Fervid with desire, or sodden with contentment? Whichever way you ingest your life, on Passover there’s only one dish on the menu.

Why did the Exodus have to take place precisely at midnight? Indeed, what is “midnight”?

"If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I?" The laws of the Passover Offering contain an important insight into the eternal question, conflict and symbiosis of self and community

Just imagine: Each morning when they woke up they were forced to look at their ex-deity—and then look themselves in the eye and ask whether or not they were ready to make this huge transition....

People in trouble don’t have the time or luxury to wait while you quibble over the command structure; they’re waiting for you to rescue them from evil.

To be successful in this relentless inner struggle, we need to build up an arsenal of meditations and exercises that strengthen our willpower and self-control.

Most of the time, the haftarah is connected to the Torah reading. At other times, it is connected to the time of year. Both happen in this haftarah.

G-d was personally involved in freeing the Jewish people from Egypt