Subject: Rabbi's Message: Apr. 2008 - Nisan 5768: Seders

This year's "Shabbat Across America" was a particularly wonderful event and Elissa Kahn and Rahel Limor did a fabulous job in making it happen.

If I were to analyze our most successful events they are:

- Passover Seder
- Tu Be-She-vat Seder
- Chanuka
- Shabbat Across America The pattern is simple. We eat together. We play together. We share our past and our present. The other day, I was listening to Matt Savage's new CD in which Matt dedicated one of his new compositions to his father. If I didn't know Larry, Matt's dad, I would have just appreciated the music as music. However, because I know Larry, the music had me visualizing Larry's smile. In other words, the sound generated a visual response. And we see from the works of Copland, Vivaldi and others, that the sounds cause responses that engage other senses.

In a similar manner, the eating and sharing our tradition allows the foods and the relationships to transcend the physical and take us to the spiritual. Please join us at the temple's seder as another opportunity to grow spiritually through the sounds, sights, tastes and aromas that evoke old memories for some and create new memories for others.

Happy Passover,

Joshua L. Segal

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