5785-2025 Pesach Message from Rabbi Finkelstein

Dear Bais Abe community,

                There is a story that has shaped my Rabbinate, that has shaped what I want Modern Orthodox Judaism to be, and I want to share it with you.

                The Bais HaLevi, Rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik (the great-grandfather of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik) was once the rabbi of a town called Slutzk. One year before Pesach, a man came to the Bais HaLevi asking if he could fulfill the mitzvah of the Four Cups at the Seder with milk instead of wine?

               The Bais Halevi was confused. “Why would you want to use milk instead of wine? Are you sick?”

                The man replied: “No, I’m not sick. I just cannot afford wine this year.”
                The Bais HaLevi immediately called for his wife to bring 25 rubles to give the man so that he could afford everything he needed for Pesach. When the man protested, saying he didn’t want charity, the Bais HaLevi replied: “Then let this be a loan.”
                After the man took the money, thanked the Bais HaLevi, and left, his wife started to question him. “I don’t understand. Wine for the Seder would cost around 5 rubles. So why did you give him 25?”

                The Bais HaLevi responded: “If he wanted to use milk for the Four Cups, then he obviously had no meat for the Seder either. I had to make sure he could afford meat for his Seder as well.”

                This story is remarkable, and speaks to the type of Jew I aspire to be. The man asked a Halachic question, and many people would focus on the direct question at hand: whether or not milk could be used for Four Cups at the Seder. But the Bais HaLevi didn’t even blink. He knew there was something deeper underneath this question, an insecurity that lived inside of this man, embarrassed to come out. The Bais Halevi encouraged him to share his pain, and immediately found a way to support the man without embarrassing him.

                But more than that, the Bais HaLevi felt the pain that was too hard to reveal. This man’s needs were (in his own eyes) too great to share; no one would want to help him that much. The Bais HaLevi could feel his shame, could sense his pain, and, without acknowledging it, found a way to support him. The ability to sense the unspoken pain, to answer not just the question beneath the question, but the self-appointed shame beneath both questions, is a remarkable ability of a rabbi, but also an aspiration for the rest of us.

This year has been difficult for a lot of us. In ways that are personal, spiritual, political, and national. Health crises, drama at work, familial strife, and the growing uncertainty of the future that grips our world shake us in ways that we often choose not to share. We show up to shul, put on a face, and hide our true struggles.

But Pesach teaches us that reaching out, crying out, is an act of Redemption. The Torah says: “and the children of Yisra᾽el sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry rose up to God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Avraham, with Yiżĥaq, and with Ya῾aqov.” (Shemot 2:23-24) It is only through the Israelites’ cries that God chose to redeem Israel. When we cry out to God, God hears us.

Nevertheless, it is hard to cry out, to ask for help. That is why it is essential that we learn to listen beneath the question, to reach out to our friends and neighbors, to offer assistance in ways that uphold dignity, especially in Zman Cheiruteinu, the Pesach season.

If anyone is in need of a Seder for either night, and/or needs financial assistance during the stressful preparation for Pesach,, please reach out to me or the office at office@baisabe.com.

                I wish everyone a joyous Chag Kasher VeSameach. May God bless us all and bring the redemption of our people and the world speedily and in our days. Amen.

Sincerely,

Eliezer Finkelstein