כָ ל- דּ וֹ רְבּ
מָּ הֶ םִע
תֶא
ב א ָ ד ָ ם ל ִ רְָיּ דוֹר חַָו
אַ ל הַ קָּ ד וֹ שׁ בָּ ר וּ ö ה וּ א, אֶ לּ ָ א אַ ף א וֹ תָָגּ
בִָא בֵ דֹא
םִי רְַצ
אַ לָגּ
before AJR was founded. From the window of the ballroom where we commemorated the Academy’ s sixtieth anniversary a few months ago, I could see Ellis Island across the water, the very place where my family had entered this country— where so many of our families entered this country. They were forced from their homes for being Jews while we were celebrating a milestone in American Jewish life. I was struck then, as I am now, by how far away that felt but how close it still is. In the 1960’ s more of my family came to these shores from other countries and for different reasons. י י. My father was a wandering Aramean. 35
At this, our חג ה ס מ י כ ה, our celebration of ordination, we carry on a tradition that began with a community of refugees and immigrants, Israelites and a mixed multitude of others, who fled Egypt with only those things they could carry. Poised at the foot of a mountain in a foreign land, they stood awestruck in dynamic encounter with the Creator of the Universe and from that encounter, the people and the Divine birthed Torah into the world, a remedy for the darkness of human suffering, a legacy for generations to come.
ִמַּרֲא
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א וֹ ת ֶ א ת- עַ צְ מ וֹ כְּ אִ לּ וּ ה וּ א מִָּי צָ א מִ |
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In each and every generation, a person is obligated to see themselves as having personally left Egypt. 36
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- א ב וֹ תֲֵ ל ֹ א
י נ וּ בִּ לְ בָ ד
נ וּ
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35
Deuteronomy 26:5
36
Mishnah Pesachim 10:5, Hagaddah
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