Talmud Class: Do Today's Troubling Headlines Belong at Our Seder?

Описание: Shall we invite the troubling headlines—from Israel, Gaza, America, our world—to our seders? Are our seders supposed to be a joyful way to avoid the world (family, friends, songs, children’s skits, plays, games, great food, lots of wine, tasty desserts), or an invitation to engage the world and think out loud together about how we can make it better?

Are there any great options? Three options present themselves:

Festival of worry. If everyone around the seder table agrees, and we talk about it, what ensues is a lot of worry, angst, negative energy, along with resolving to do our part to protest the troubling turn of events.

Festival of acrimony. If people around the seder table do not agree, and we talk about it, what ensues is conflict, friction, acrimony. Who needs it?

Festival of willed indifference. We do at the seder what we do most days, live our lives like it is not happening. Ignore the elephant. Talk about something else. But is that what we should be doing at a seder whose purpose is to inspire us to do our part to create a more just world?

We do not have the answer for this question. But we are going to explore four lenses that can enable you to arrive at your own answer:

• a halakhic lens: https://shulcloud-images-bucket.s3.am...

• a poetic lens: https://shulcloud-images-bucket.s3.am...

• an interpersonal relationship lens: https://shulcloud-images-bucket.s3.am...

• a justice lens from the Haggadah: https://shulcloud-images-bucket.s3.am...

Are we to celebrate the redemption that happened thousands of years ago, or to engage the redemption that needs to happen now? What do you think?