Author:

THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY PESAH GUIDE 1טתשע”

The Committee on Jewish Law & Standards (CJLS) Kashrut Subcommittee2
Introduction by Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, Chair, CJLS

Stories play a key role in identifying a religion or nation, especially the ones at the center of a community’s history and ritual, the ones taught to members of the community from an early age and repeated often by adults in rituals and prayers. Such master stories express in easily understandable and emotionally compelling terms a community’s understanding of its origins, its values, and its goals. If one were to compare the view of life and humanity embedded in the master stories of, for example, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism – and the United States, China, and Israel – one would find deep differences in how these various human communities understand who they are as individuals and as a community, what is important in life, and what they should strive for. Judaism’s master story is the Exodus from Egypt, followed by the trek to Mount Sinai and then to the Promised Land of Israel. We leave Egypt not as individuals but as a nation, and we do so only with the help of God. This is very different from the staunch individualism at the heart of the liberalism that has forged most Western countries. At Mount Sinai we engage in a Covenant with God that establishes the basis of our relationship with God – and the duties of that relationship  or ourselves and all our descendants. (more…)