A Message from Rabbi Bellows

March 22, 2026/4 Nisan 5786

Dear Friends,

Each year, a couple of months before Passover, I begin the Passover Process: planning menus, comparing grocery prices, order the ground mixture of pike, whitefish and trout to my exact gefilte fish recipe specifications, and mapping out my holiday prep schedule which includes thoroughly cleaning the kitchen, removing hametz, covering countertops with foil, and clearing the pantry—the whole routine.

As my close friend Marcie and I say to each other every year, Passover is hardly liberating!

Preparing for Pesach can be exhausting—not to mention expensive. If you relate to this, know you are not alone!

This year, as Passover nears, I’m less drawn to exhausting preparations and more to the quiet power of the Seder—its core meaning: liberation, freedom, courage, our story of survival, determination, and faith. 

Seder is a holiday with an emphasis on togetherness, sharing, and being in community with family and friends. We pass the matzah, dip the parsley, ask familiar questions, and make space for every voice. We proclaim, “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” We open the door for Elijah, symbolizing hope, and thus practice hope itself.

In a fractured world, the Seder calls us to gather with generosity, gratitude, and hope.

We don’t gather because all is resolved, but because we need each other, and retelling our story reminds us who we are and what we value.

And at the very end of the evening, we say words that have carried our people through generations: “Next year in Jerusalem.” 

Not because we know what next year will bring.

Not because the world is as it should be.

But because we are a people who refuse to stop imagining something better.

This year, perhaps that is enough.

May the messages of Passover bring us closer to one another. May it inspire us to continue to work for freedom and Shalom.

Rabbi Bellows