Dear Friends,
As the holiday of Passover descends upon us, Ettie, Mendel, Yitzi, Chaya and Hinda join me in wishing you and yours a truly joyful Passover holiday.
We are thinking of family and friends far and near and wishing you a very special holiday full of quality time and traditional experiences creating lifelong memories with family and friends.
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A Path to True Happiness: The Jewish Way
Almost every young person begins life thinking happiness is about getting. If I get the right job, the right house, the right approval, or the right recognition, then I’ll be happy. But then life pulls you aside and teaches you something different.
True happiness, the kind that lasts, doesn’t come from what you get. It comes from what you give.
In Jewish tradition, we have a word for happiness: simcha. And what’s fascinating is that in all the pages of the Torah, you’ll never find simcha happening in isolation. Joy in Judaism is never about one person alone. It’s always something shared.
Let me give you two brief examples.
First, when a man gets married, the Torah exempts him from military service for an entire year. Why? To stay home and bring joy to his wife. Not so he can be happy or go on a honeymoon, but so he can make someone else happy. Because joy in Judaism doesn’t begin with me—it begins with you.
Second, the great festivals of the Jewish year—Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot—are called zman simchateinu, “seasons of our joy.” But listen carefully to who is invited. The Torah says, “You shall rejoice, you, your sons and daughters, your servants, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow”. This is not just a guest list, it’s a worldview. Everyone belongs—the powerful and the vulnerable, the insiders and the outsiders.
If your joy isn’t big enough to hold someone else, it’s not joy yet.
As we prepare for Passover, let’s take a moment to see who we can invite or assist to help make their holiday joyful. It’s in the giving that we truly experience simcha.
And most of all, as we recount the story of our liberation, we cannot forget the 59 hostages still held in Gaza. We hold them deeply in our hearts. We will pray for them, cry out for them, and do everything we can—through mitzvot, through support, and through unity—so that they are reunited with their families now, this Passover. And then, together, we will all experience the truest and greatest joy.
Wishing you a meaningful, happy, and kosher Passover.
Rabbi Fishel & Ettie Zaklos