Parashat Tzav | Rabbi Roly Matalon & Rabbi Felicia Sol | March 28, 2026

The Shabbat

finds us at a time of war.

It seems

that the Pesak

in Israel, in the Middle East, in Israel

in particular, will be

moving from the table to the shelter or

the safe room

as it has been for the past number of

weeks.

There are a number of people who have

already died in Israel and of course

many many people who have died in Iran

and in other places in Lebanon,

innocent civilians who have fallen in

this uh

in this war.

And uh

we're going to be sitting at our

seda tables

on Wednesday night. And um

I wonder what will emerge from the

conversations and what will emerge from

the text of the Hagada.

Uh also

we find ourselves in our country not

only at war far away but we have some

very serious uh issues here in our own

country. And so,

uh, I just want to Felicia and I have a

little conversation about some of the

things that perhaps will emerge at the

at at the Sedra will just emerge flow

from the Hagada

going over the Hagada. So the first

thing that was really staring

at my face, other words,

this is the bread of affliction that our

ancestors ate.

All who are hungry, come and eat.

And we're saying these words

at a time when our country is not

particularly embracing

all who are hungry come and eat and the

treatment not only of people who are

dealing with poverty and with food

insecurity but also people who are

coming here because they need

to eat and to live

are treated with tremendous amount of

cruelty.

And so

what do you do about this reciting this

line on this year? I just there's a

beautiful tradition that I just uh was

when I was studying this week about um

actually one of the reasons it says that

Shabbat hagadul is called Shabbat is

because it's there's a tradition to bake

a large kala and give it to the poor

>> um on the Shabbat in in anticipation of

Pak which is an interesting just like

companion to Alahma which is like how do

we condition ourselves despite what is

uh happening on the macro level. There

there is uh I mean this is a very um

personal choice in our tradition to sit

at the seder table and say that it's not

this is not a government decision. And

this is not a it's a conditioned

orientation as a people um to be

attentive to this call and to um to open

the door you know to say me you know

despite what so I think you know one of

the questions this year is a deflection

towards all the things that are hard

which are true um no I think no one is

living and feels that this time is a

time of profound hope. Um we're living

in a lot of discomfort and anger or um

despair at uh a lot of the choices

whether it's our governments or other

governments are making. And yet there's

something very true about what it means

to just sit at your table, sit at our

table and make choices as a people, as a

and that the tradition I think wants us

to be heightened. um no matter who else

is telling a certain story out there,

but that the story at our table should

be conditioned towards that that

leaning. Um, and so I think sometimes in

the midst of such profoundity of

nervousness and uncertainty and in some

way not knowing what to do with the

questions that are before us in large

ways, it's actually helpful to sit at

the table and ask the question in very

small ways. Um, and to say these

statements as not something that it's

someone else's responsibility, but like

this kalan Shabbat. um is actually on

us, you know, that that it's not just I

mean the millions of people that are in

poverty in our country are not in

poverty because someone else decided

they should be in poverty. It's because

we've all colluded in a system that

allows people to be in poverty that

allows people on our streets that

doesn't create supportive housing like

all all the things that are true right

here in our own neighborhood. Um, and so

I think there's some kind of layering of

this the way we tell the story that says

where do I sit in the story? What power

do I have in acknowledging this truth

and to not deflect the responsibility

actually but to bring it right home.

So since uh we go from then we go to

manishana

and it says

and says

so we're leaning right we're normally

sit we're leaning a lot of people are

not going to be able to lean comfortably

on this pes in Israel people who are

going to be sitting at this I think

going to be sitting pretty uh um on

alert Right. And uh and us here uh it's

difficult this year to be meubin to be

to do the to just lean and experience

you know the sense of of I mean we we we

we lean because we are free and

I I find it challenging to say the least

this year.

Rabbi Nami Kelman wrote a piece uh in

the Times of Israel um about that we

should have our cups overflowing with

Miriam's water at the table and uh she

she said you know I don't know what will

be she said it would it's kind of like

co she lives in and it's like they're

trying to decide are they going to have

sedarim on Zoom are they going to sit at

their tables and run back and forth

anticipating that the hazakot are going

to come And so even that in of itself

and I I feel like I've been asking my

question the question these weeks and um

it's like what actually is freedom right

the the we

in a very constrained state we're not

the ones who are running back and forth

in the middle of the night although some

of us have relatives who are doing that

or children who are have experiencing

that or um family and friends um

checking and sending WhatsApp apps all

the time um to check in to see how

people are doing. Um, and it really

calls into the question, what is the

freedom that the Hagada is asking us?

Um, because I think our notions of

freedom are sometimes skewed about what

is like what is real freedom. Obviously,

Jewish freedom, religious freedom is not

the same as some of the freedoms that

are spoken about

American freedoms. Um and I think that's

a very powerful question these days like

what is what is freedom you know in our

tradition freedom is not uh a

free-for-all right it's not having

everything available to us it's it's a

directed freedom which is why we make

the walk to shàuote but even on the

seder night like what what are we trying

to evoke yeah sit sitting versus leaning

um but what is that meant to represent?

Um, in a sense and and maybe to ask the

questions that certain things that we

think I mean it relates also to ana and

the kind of society we live in is what

is our own freedom and but also what is

creating a world of freedom. The freedom

is the freedom to free ourselves from

the ways of old and talking about

in the in the beginning our ancestors or

where we come from is people who were

idoltors but now

God has brought us closer to God's

service and to be free is really to be

able to embrace and to embrace

wholeheartedly the voice of God the

service of God. The service of of God

that is we believe a God of justice and

compassion and and and that longs for

peace among God's creatures. That's the

service that we long for. That's the

that's the freedom I believe. It's to

inhabit that type of a world. So I

believe we're very far from that. I

still was still struggling to become

free to free ourselves from these ways

which have become so mainstream in our

world of cruelty and war and

and and one country threatening another

country and we're very far from that.

And it's not just about our personal

freedom. It's also about the freedom

that we experience as members of a of a

collective of a society of a people and

then of pe of and then and then of a

group of peoples a community of peoples.

I want to bring us uh I was looking at

the the four children. Oh, okay.

>> Yeah.

>> And I was looking at the four children

and I was um

asking myself which of the children's

speak this year to me and for me the

simple child that says mazot

what is this? We're asking what is this?

What are we living through?

And then

very much identify with the one who

doesn't know how to ask. I don't even

know where else to ask. I don't know

what the questions are that we should be

asking ourselves in order to get

ourselves out of where we are,

>> which is the point of sitting at the

table, you know, and asking um we were

at a an event the other night uh and

Jodie Caner was the guest speaker at a

was our rabbi circle where uh of our

largest donors of BJ and Jodie Cancer um

who's the reporter from the New York

Times. And I asked like what question

did she think that the Jewish people

should be asking now? And she said

something very interesting. She um said

that she thought we should be asking

like what is going on with

anti-semitism. And she didn't mean it

from a place of like um to just say like

let's talk about its roots. She's like

there she's an investigative reporter

and she came at it from the sense like

what is really beneath this and and also

without also not she she was not saying

it also to just the a charge for the

ADL. She was saying it to say like

something is going on here. And she was

also talking about the Jewish people,

which is, you know, the conspiracy

theories about the Jewish people, but

she was also asking there's there's some

truth too there. And again, she was not

saying it from a left or right

perspective. She was saying like, what

is going on here? And I feel like I've

been thinking about about that a lot.

And the same about the question of

freedom. Like what are we not not

asking? What questions are we afraid to

ask? what what um kind of I don't know

just easy answers that we're giving

ourselves that make us feel better but

maybe we should sit with the simplicity

of just asking a big question and then

not finding uh reactive quick answers to

the question and I think that's hard in

our time because we want easier answers

and we would like it to be able to fix

it but clearly certain problems haven't

been fixed certain solutions solutions

to what p are perceived to be um things

that should be you know we should have

solved the questions of the occupation

and the Palestinians but it hasn't been

solved so clearly the options that were

available aren't working um what what is

going on in our country around

anti-semitism is real it's real like

what is beneath it hello Rabbi Danny um

and so I think there is something about

like sitting in the unkown known of

that. And the other thing I just want to

acknowledge is um we've been talking

about the tension Roly and I were

talking about the tension between kind

of the immediacy of the redemption that

is spoken about in at the seder table,

you know, that um kind of that moment of

mitim of crossing the sea which um is

like very large and very big and at the

same time the tradition has a strong

orientation towards a slow build or in a

slow burn. You could say that it's like

living with this tension between large

redemption and um and a very slow move

towards what it takes to come to this

kind of redemption.

And the stages

this the which are based on the cups of

wine are meant to both um talk about

different kinds of redemption but that

redemption isn't an all at once

experience. So we're living with these

kind of two um Hesshel we were talking

about Hesshel calls a process and event

and that also I've been thinking about a

lot like we see something where we think

I don't an example would be where um the

way Minneapolis rose up in the face of

ice and you kind of pin your hopes on

this moment which says there's going to

be a big rise up to say that's it you

know and then you get disappointed when

it's actually still a slow move of like

the work um of building redemption out

of out of a given moment. So that's

another question um that I think we have

to talk about. So a lot of uh a lot of

qu questions fewer answers which is what

the sed is about and we hope that

everybody will have meaningful and um

meaningful seders that will actually be

uh very much connected and rooted where

we are each one of us at this particular

moment with our fears, our aspirations,

our dreams, our hopes and also calling

ourselves to act where we must in order

to make ourselves freer and our world

freer.