Happy Pesach. We had a great Seder here in the Settler home. As we had a couple of years ago, Mrs. Settler's family joined us from America, and was invited to see all of the benefits of living in Israel on Pesach, including soft matzot, rice on Pesach, and 1 Seder. I say see because, as visitors, they don't get to participate in any of those things while following the Rabbis of the diaspora, but they do get to see close up how Pesach was meant to be, and what they could have if they too move to the Promised Land. The little settlers were in rare form last night singing and asking questions, while we sat around on cushions on the floor, discussing the Exodus, and the origins of our Nation.
Tonight, we counted the first night of the Omer. This commemorates the new grain sacrifice that was given in the Temple, but since the destruction of it 2000 years ago, this time has been marked as a time of mourning over the 24,000 students/soldiers (depending on how you read history) of Rabbi Akiva. So you may ask how could I love a time like this more than any other time of year. The truth is that what happened to the students was a terrible tragedy, but today, this time period includes most of Pesach, spring, as well as the modern holidays of Independence Day, Lag Baomer, and Jerusalem Day. Living where I do, it's easy to see the modern day miracles that brought us as Israelis and Jews to the great place that we are in today. At this time of year, we celebrate our origin as a nation, and our origin as a modern nation. We celebrate the spring, a time of renewal, and we celebrate the renewal of our nationhood and our return to our entire land. It's a time of joy and gives us an opportunity to see how far we've come, and look towards our bright future.
I hope that you can all join us here to be a part of this historic time, as the times of mourning are turned to times of joy, and we follow with the uniting of the Jewish people under the flag of a truly free and prosperous nation, in it's homeland.
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