Nourish Your Biblical Roots

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Shalom from here in the Holy Land. Welcome to the
Nourish Your Biblical Roots podcast. I'm your host, Y l Estein,
President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Each week, we'll explore the Jewish roots of your Christian
faith and nourish those roots with inspirational insights and ancient

(00:29):
teachings that are so relevant to our lives. Today, let's
get started. Today, we're going to talk about one of
the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar, Passover. Passover

(00:49):
celebrates the seminal event in Jewish history, the Exodus from Egypt,
the moment when the Israelites were redeemed by God and
became His people. Today, we're going to explore some biblical
verses that explain how Jews celebrate Passover every year and
the lesson it holds for all people of faith. We'll

(01:10):
talk about how asking questions is a central theme of Passover,
and we'll discover why asking questions is a critical component
in our walk with God. We'll learn that asking good,
honest questions shouldn't be seen as a challenge to God,
but as a way to improve our lives, our world,
and yes, even our faith. We'll read a part of

(01:33):
the Bible that actually relates to passover, Exodus twelve twenty
one to twelve fifty one. This section of the Bible
tells us about the eve of the Exodus, the very
first Passover. We learn that Moses instructed the Israelites to
slaughter Lamb, a passover Lamb, and to place the blood

(01:54):
on their door posts so that God would pass over
their houses when he came to slay Egypt's firstborn sons.
The verses that I want to focus on today tells
us what Moses said to the people after he gave
them these instructions. They're in Exodus twelve, verses twenty four
through twenty seven, and I'm going to read them to you. Now,

(02:15):
obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and
your descendants when you enter the land that the Lord
will give you as he promised. Observe this ceremony. And
when your children ask you what does this ceremony mean
to you, tell them it's the passover sacrifice to the
Lord who passed over the houses of the Israelites in

(02:38):
Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the
Egyptians then the people bowed down and worshiped. In these verses,
Moses told the people that once they enter the land
of Israel, they should continue to sacrifice the Passover lamb
every year to commemorate the eve of Exodus. He also

(02:59):
told them, when their children ask why they're sacrificing the lamb,
to tell them how God passed over their houses during
the plague of the First Born. Since the destruction of
the Temple in Jerusalem, there is of course no Passover sacrifice. Instead,
jew celebrate Passover with a satyr, a ritual meal that

(03:20):
involves retelling the story of the Exodus. In order to
do that, we set the stage with props and foods
that help us to tell the story. So, instead of
having khala on the table as we usually do during
a typical Shabbat and holiday meal on Passover, we have matza,
which is an unleavened, flat cracker like bread. The matsa

(03:44):
reminds us of the bread that the Jewish people ate
on their way out of Egypt, when they left in
such a hurry that their bread didn't even have time
to rise. Some of the other items that we have
on the table are a roasted meat bone, that symbolizes
pass Over sacrifice, bitter herbs that symbolize the bitterness of slavery,

(04:06):
salt water that reminds us of the tears that the
Jewish people shed as slaves, and a special nut and
fruit paste that looks like mortar and reminds us of
the harsh labor that the Israelites were forced to do
as slaves. These symbolic foods are important because the purpose
of the satyr is to tell the story of the

(04:28):
Exodus from Egypt, and in particular to the children, so
that the story's kept alive and pass down from generation
to generation. What's interesting about the verse I shared with
you is that it doesn't just tell us what to
tell our children about the Exodus story. It actually tells
us how to tell the story. Listen again to this

(04:50):
part of the verse, and when your children ask you
what does this ceremony mean to you, then tell them
it is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord. That's the verse.
God doesn't just want us to retell the Passover story.
He wants the process to start with the children asking questions.

(05:15):
We see the same idea a little further on in
Exodus thirteen fourteen, where we read in the days to come.
When your son asks you, what does this mean, say
to him with a mighty hand. The Lord brought us
out of Egypt. The Bible doesn't want us to lecture
our children about the story of Exodus. Rather, we are

(05:37):
to train our children to ask questions. One of my
earliest memories is of my father eating an entire tablespoon
of traditional bitter herbs at the Passover Sadr. The horse
radish was so bitter that my father's eyes filled with tears,
and it looked to me like he was crying. I

(05:58):
couldn't understand why my father was crying at our holiday meal,
so I said to him, Apa, why are you crying?
And my father looked at me with a big smile,
and he said, so that you would ask. Of course,
that didn't really answer my question. So one of my
older sisters explained that the purpose of eating bitter herbs
is to remind us of the bitter slavery and the

(06:19):
tears of the Israelites. My father, i remember, just looked
at my sister with such a big smile. He was
so proud of her for knowing the answered my question.
But he seemed just as proud of me for asking
the question in the first place. The entire Sadar is
structured in way that encourages questioning. We do unusual things,

(06:41):
and we eat unusual foods, and when we get to
the official storytelling part of the sadr, we don't begin
with facts and explanations. Instead, we actually begin with questions.
During the sador meal, we use a guide called the Hagadah,
which in Hebrew means the It's a compilation of texts

(07:02):
and prayers and songs that's been used for thousands of
years to tell the story of leaving Egypt. The very
first text that we read is called the Four Questions,
and it's traditionally sung by the youngest child at the satyr.
Another one of my earliest memories is singing this song,

(07:23):
the Four Questions and our family satyr. I'm the youngest
of three daughters, and so once I was old enough
to read, it was my job to ask the four questions.
I remember standing on a chair in my nice new
dress while the entire family looked at me, beaming with pride,
And when I finished singing these four questions, everyone cheered

(07:43):
for me. At the time, I didn't understand the significance
of what I was doing, but I definitely learned that
asking questions is a good thing to do and it's
something to be celebrated. The Passover Satyr was designed to
involve children and encourage them to ask questions so that

(08:03):
we can have meaningful and relevant conversations about faith. But
here's the thing. According to Jewish tradition, if no children
are present at the satr, we still need to ask
the four questions. Even if we're alone at our sador.
We need to ask the questions to ourselves. And you

(08:24):
might ask the question why, Well, I think it's because
God wants us all to be lifelong seekers. God wants
us to ask. He wants us to learn, to rediscover
and recommit to Him on our journey of faith. He
wants us to grow closer to Him. Yes, Passover as

(08:45):
a time to teach the fundamentals of our faith to
the next generation, but it's also a time to review
them for ourselves. It's the time for learning and discovery
no matter what our ages, and we learn best by
asking questions. It might seem counterintuitive, but is asking questions

(09:06):
not having all the answers that leads us to more knowledge,
new discoveries. And greater wisdom. I once heard a beautiful
story that demonstrates this exact idea. Isidore Robbie was a
Jewish American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in physics
for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance. And that's the

(09:27):
technology that we use for MRIs. One time, a reporter
asked him what made him become a scientist, and listen
to what he answered. He said, my mother made me
a scientist. When other children came home from school, their
mothers would ask, what did you learn today? But my
mother would say, is he did you ask a good

(09:48):
question today? He said, learning to ask questions. Shalom from
here in the Holy Land. Welcome to the Nourish Your
Biblical Roots Podcast. I'm your host ye El Elstein, President

(10:09):
and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Each week, we'll explore the Jewish roots of your Christian
faith and nourish those roots with inspirational insights and ancient
teachings that are so relevant to our lives. Today, let's
get started. Today we're going to talk about one of

(10:37):
the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar, Passover. Passover
celebrates the seminal event in Jewish history, the Exodus from Egypt,
the moment when the Israelites were redeemed by God and
became His people. Today, we're going to explore some biblical
verses that explain how Jews celebrate Passover every year and

(10:59):
the less and it holds for all people of faith.
We'll talk about how asking questions is a central theme
of Passover, and we'll discover why asking questions is a
critical component in our walk with God. We'll learn that
asking good, honest questions shouldn't be seen as a challenge
to God, but as a way to improve our lives,

(11:21):
our world, and yes, even our faith. We'll read a
part of the Bible that actually relates to Passover, Exodus
twelve twenty one to twelve fifty one. This section of
the Bible tells us about the eve of the Exodus,
the very first Passover. We learn that Moses instructed the

(11:42):
Israelites to slaughter Lamb a passover Lamb, and to place
the blood on their door posts so that God would
pass over their houses when he came to slay Egypt's
firstborn sons. The verses that I want to focus on
today tells us what Moses said to the people after
he gave them these instructions. They're in Exodus twelve, verses

(12:04):
twenty four through twenty seven, and I'm going to read
them to you. Now, obey these instructions as a lasting
ordinance for you and your descendants when you enter the
land that the Lord will give you as he promised.
Observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, what
does this ceremony mean to you, tell them it's the

(12:26):
Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses
of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when
he struck down the Egyptians. Then the people bowed down
and worshiped. In these verses, Moses told the people that
once they enter the land of Israel, they should continue
to sacrifice the Passover lamb every year to commemorate the

(12:49):
eve of Exodus. He also told them, when their children
ask why they're sacrificing the lamb, to tell them how
God passed over their houses during the plague of the
First Born. Since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem,
there is of course no Passover sacrifice. Instead, jew celebrate
Passover with a satyr a ritual meal that involves retelling

(13:15):
the story of the Exodus. In order to do that,
we set the stage with props and foods that help
us to tell the story. So, instead of having jala
on the table as we usually do during a typical
Shabbatan holiday meal on Passover, we have matza, which is
an unleavened flat cracker like bread. The matsa reminds us

(13:38):
of the bread that the Jewish people ate on their
way out of Egypt, when they left in such a
hurry that their bread didn't even have time to rise.
Some of the other items that we have on the
table are a roasted meat bone that symbolizes the Passover sacrifice,
bitter herbs that symbolize the bitterness of slavery, salt water

(13:59):
that remindminds us of the tears that the Jewish people
shed as slaves, and a special nut and fruit paste
that looks like mortar and reminds us of the harsh
labor that the Israelites were forced to do as slaves.
These symbolic foods are important because the purpose of the
satyr is to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt,

(14:22):
and in particular to the children. So that the story's
kept alive and pass down from generation to generation. What's
interesting about the verse I shared with you is that
it doesn't just tell us what to tell our children
about the Exodus story. It actually tells us how to
tell the story. Listen again to this part of the verse.

(14:45):
And when your children ask you, what does this ceremony
mean to you, then tell them it is the passover
sacrifice to the Lord. That's the verse. God doesn't just
want us to reach tell the Passover story. He wants
the process to start with the children asking questions. We

(15:08):
see the same idea a little further on in Exodus
thirteen fourteen, where we read in the Days to come,
when your son asks you, what does this mean, say
to him with a mighty hand, the Lord brought us
out of Egypt. The Bible doesn't want us to lecture
our children about this story of Exodus. Rather, we are

(15:30):
to train our children to ask questions. One of my
earliest memories is of my father eating an entire tablespoon
of traditional bitter herbs at the Passover Sadr. The horseradish
was so bitter that my father's eyes filled with tears,
and it looked to me like he was crying. I

(15:51):
couldn't understand why my father was crying at our holiday meals,
so I said to him, Apa, why are you crying?
And my father looked at me with a big smile,
and he said, so that you would ask. Of course,
that didn't really answer my question. So one of my
older sisters explained that the purpose of eating bitter herbs
is to remind us of the bitter slavery and the

(16:12):
tears of the Israelites. My father, i remember, just looked
at my sister with such a big smile. He was
so proud of her for knowing the answered my question,
But he seemed just as proud of me for asking
the question in the first place. The entire Sadar is
structured in a way that encourages questioning. We do unusual things,

(16:34):
and we eat unusual foods, and when we get to
the official storytelling part of the satyr, we don't begin
with facts and explanations. Instead, we actually begin with questions.
During the sator meal, we use a guide called the Hagadah,
which in Hebrew means the telling. It's a compilation of

(16:55):
texts and prayers and songs that's been used for thousands
of years to tell the story of leaving Egypt. The
very first text that we read is called the Four Questions,
and it's traditionally sung by the youngest child at the satyr.
Another one of my earliest memories is singing this song,

(17:16):
the Four Questions at our family satyr. I'm the youngest
of three daughters, and so once I was old enough
to read, it was my job to ask the four Questions.
I remember standing on a chair in my nice new
dress while the entire family looked at me, beaming with pride,
and when I finished singing these four questions, everyone cheered

(17:36):
for me. At the time, I didn't understand the significance
of what I was doing, but I definitely learned that
asking questions is a good thing to do and it's
something to be celebrated. The Passover satyr was designed to
involve children and encourage them to ask questions so that

(17:56):
we can have meaningful and relevant conversations about faith. But
here's the thing. According to Jewish tradition, if no children
are present at the satyr, we still need to ask
the four questions. Even if we're alone at our sador,
we need to ask the questions to ourselves. And you

(18:17):
might ask the question why, Well, I think it's because
God wants us all to be lifelong seekers. God wants
us to ask. He wants us to learn, to rediscover
and recommit to Him on our journey of faith. He
wants us to grow closer to Him. Yes, Passover as

(18:38):
a time to teach the fundamentals of our faith to
the next generation, but it's also a time to review
them for ourselves. It's a time for learning and discovery
no matter what our ages, and we learn best by
asking questions. It might seem counterintuitive, but is asking questions,

(18:59):
noting all the answers that leads us to more knowledge,
new discoveries, and greater wisdom. I once heard a beautiful
story that demonstrates this exact idea. Isidore Robbie was a
Jewish American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in physics
for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance. And that's the

(19:20):
technology that we use for MRIs. One time a reporter
asked him what made him become a scientist, and listen
to what he answered. He said, my mother made me
a scientist. When other children came home from school, their
mothers would ask what did you learn today? But my
mother would say, is he did you ask a good

(19:41):
question today? He said, Learning to ask questions is what
made me a scientist. Yes, learning to ask questions is
a skill that we teach our children at the Passover Satyr,
and it's a skill that we all need to develop
for life. Is the number one skill for gaining knowledge

(20:01):
about anything, including God. If you think that you know everything,
then you can't learn. And our tradition also teaches that
a person who is shy cannot learn, meaning a person
who doesn't ask questions will miss countless learning opportunities. The
Hebrew word for knowledge is hahmah. If we break that

(20:24):
we're down into two words, it becomes kach ma, which
means the power of asking what. This teaches us that
there is a great power in asking questions. It leads
us to great knowledge. Rabbit Abraham Joshua Heschel said, we
are closer to God when we are asking questions than

(20:48):
when we think that we have the answers. And I'm
going to ask you a question. Why is that? I
think it's because when we ask questions, we're more open
to learn. The rabbis thought that a person who thinks
he has all the answers has no space to receive
new knowledge. He is literally full of himself.