Reprinted from Kehilat Jacob News
New York, 5752.
Dearest Friends,

     Our holy rabbis called Purim "the Dawn" - the sun
isn't rising yet but it's no longer night. It's in between,
which is what makes dawn so special.

     According to our holy rabbis it is the time when
babies wake up and want to be nursed, the time when
husband and wife wake up and want to be so close to
each other. It is the time when the light of the Messiah
is shining. It is a time when everyone dreams that today
is the day of their redemption. Anybody who has ever
been up all night has tasted the awesome depth and
sweetness of davening at dawn. Have you ever prayed
by the Holy Wall at dawn?

     So Purim in the beginning of our redemption. We're
waking up and being drunk with the joy of being Jewish.
Dawn is still too dark; we don't really see each other.
We only see with the eyes of our soul and my soul sees
only G-d. On Purim I send out gifts but not face to face,
This is how I let you know I see you with the eyes of my
soul. That is why I love you so much.

     Then, for thirty days we prepare ourselves. The way
I prepare myself is by realizing that I don't have vessels
for redemption, What I must do is get rid of the old dirty
vessels.

     We are living in a crazy world, Everything is out of
proportion, everything is inflated. The matzoh is just
water and flour, the way it really is. Chometz is being
blown up beyond proportion. On Pesach we change our
dishes, everything is new. New light for new vessels.
We realize we were only slaves because we did not
receive G-d's light with the right vessels. This is also
true between other people and ourselves. On Pesach we
have new vessels for each other's love. The awakening
is on Purim. But Purim is just one day, one minute.
Light beyond vessels. Drunk. On Pesach I have new
vessels.

     Is there anything greater than the love of children
for their parents or parents for their children? Is there
anything sweeter than the questions of children? Seder
night begins with children asking us the deepest
questions. And we don't really answer them, we just
make the questions deeper; we are just telling children
that we have the same questions all our lives.

     The most terrible thing is that we keep pretending
to our children that we do know the answers. On Seder
night we admit we don't know. But when Elijah the
Prophet comes he will answer all the questions, no, he
will not answer all the questions, but suddenly, in his
presence, the questions will disappear.

     We have no vessels to feel the pain of homeless
people. That is why we are afraid to let them into our
house. There is no peace in the world because we don't
have vessels for it. Yet on Pesach, the night of
redemption, I have vessels for the homeless and I invite
them to my house. On Seder night, hopefully, I have
vessels to be one with my children. Let it be this year
that we will have vessels to be one with the world.

     There, is a matzoh of this world and there is a
matzoh from heaven. The matzoh we eat at the
beginning of the seder is matzoh from this world,
matzoh of the earth. But at the end of the seder, when
our children bring us a piece of matzoh, this is the
matzoh from heaven. The matzoh which reaches so
deep in us and makes us all into vessels to receive the
light of Elijah, the light of redemption.

     Some of us don't even have vessels for our own
souls. Do you know why we eat blown up bread? Why
our lives are so blown up? It is because we cannot
the sadness of the poverty of the bread in our Iives. So
we need to blow it up.

     Our chilren steal the matzoh from us and bring it
back to us later on. They am telling us, gevalt, are you
holy. Parents, do you know what you could be to your
children? Each time we console our children, when we
take care of them, we become their Elijah the Prophet.
Each time we kiss our children we are bringing the
world closer to the Messiah. Seder night we are giving
over our Yiddishkeit to our children. Please be so
careful to give over the best to our children. We so often
don't teach our children because our Yiddishkeit has
become blown up. So many people don't believe in
Israel anymore because they found the blown up Israel.
On Seder night we give over Yiddishkeit the way it
really is. On Seder night we fix our poor children who
are turned off by blown up Yiddishkeit. What a night,
what a night of all nights!

     I wish you, brothers and sisters, the most glorious,
divine seder.

                 Much love,

                   Shlomo

