4/6/20 - Parents and Children ; Psalms and Seders

          With Pesach preparations in full gear, we are very aware that Pesach this year will be very different. We will be missing our eldest daughter who remains in Boston in her own "shelter in place". This year will be different since there will be no grandparents at the Seder. I have always experienced a certain kind of Joy, as I sat a seder table that was multigenerational, a table where grandparents and sometimes great grandparents would be able to transmit to grandchildren and great-grandchildren their wisdom and their experiences. With its focus on telling a story, with its focus upon those four sons (children); the Seder is geared toward children and the transmission of wisdom, experience, and information to children. The message is clear. Children symbolize the future, they symbolize hope, they symbolize the purity and innocence of the previous generations who have had to compromise, who have, perhaps, grown cynical, or just a little less optimistic about the future.

          Every Monday, at the end of the morning service (Shacharit) we recite the Psalm For the Day. On Monday, the psalm begins with: Shir Mizmor Livnei Korach - A song, a psalm by the sons of Korach,  Gadol HaShem U'mhulal Me'Ode - Great is Hashem and much praised. The authors of the psalm are not known to us by name, but rather they are known through their father. They are the sons of Korach, the same Korach that led a rebellion against Moses, the same Korach that was played by Edward G. Robinson in Ten Commandments. Why would Korahch's sons,  sons who watched God punish his father,  still consider God so praiseworthy? Maybe they were young men of profound and unwavering faith, with more faith in God than their father. Maybe they were young men with just a regular amount of faith, but their father had grown so distant, so cynical, so jealous so narcissistic that the sons realize that they could no longer abide by their father's agenda.  As a father, the message seems clear. As my son grows older and has is own mind, I am reminded that every day affords me the opportunity to strengthen or weaken that relationship. If I strengthen that relationship then my son, children never have to choose. As the week begins, as Pesach begins this week, I am reminded that my job as a parent is to serve as a role model to my children and pass along my wisdom and experience to them.

Peace,
Rav Yitz

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