Dear Friends,
A 2013 Pew study found something striking: the most widely practiced Jewish ritual in America isn’t synagogue attendance or even Yom Kippur fasting — it’s the Passover Seder.
Put simply, out of every ten Jews:
about two attend synagogue monthly,
about five fast on Yom Kippur,
but seven sit down at a Passover Seder.
Why?
Short answer: it's because the Seder doesn’t live in the synagogue. It lives at home.
This phenomenon shows that knowingly or unknowingly, Jews are drawn to Judaism at home.
To understand this, we go to this week's Parsha Bo for the very first Seder. On the night before the Exodus, the Jews were commanded to gather as families and eat the Paschal lamb with matzah and bitter herbs inside their homes. They were also told to smear the blood on the doorposts and lintel and not to leave until morning, so they wouldn't be harmed by the Angel of Death in the plague of the slaying of the first-born (Exodus 12).
I get the Passover seder part, but why were they commanded to smear blood on the doorway? Wasn't there a better way to signal a Jewish home?
(Imagine how strange that sounds — going into Sherwin-Williams for a paintbrush and a quart of blood to paint your doorframe...)
Some commentators say the 'blood-on-doorposts' was to make a bold declaration to the Egyptian masters that we are a Jewish family fearlessly fulfilling our G-d's command.
However, Rashi notes, the blood was placed on the inside of the doorposts. In other words, the blood of the first commandment is not for the outside world to see, but for the Jewish family to see. The Torah’s message was profound. The doorway marked the boundary between inside and outside. By sanctifying it, the Jewish home itself became holy.
Redemption didn’t begin in the street.
It began at home.
And that is also why kosher matters.
Kosher isn’t just a set of dietary rules. It is Judaism’s way of ensuring that holiness continues to enter our homes — into our kitchens, onto our tables, and into everyday life.
That is the spirit of Kosher Awareness Month. And it is why next week’s Up Close & Kosher event is so timely — a chance to explore what kosher really means today and how ancient Jewish values shape modern food choices and recipes
I invite you to come take a closer look, pressure-free.
Come see how you can bring that seder feeling of Jewish-identity hominess to your table - 365 days a year.
Good Shabbos/Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yitzi Hein