A Tactless Attack Tactic?

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Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

March 13-14, 2026 • 25 Adar 5786 • Vayakeil-Pekudei (Exod 35-40).

Keep reading for a big announcement! (the image at the left is a hint)

To prepare you for it, here's a question for your table: What's worse - when they attack us physically or spiritually?

For many people, one of the highlights of the Passover Seder (in two weeks and change!) is the song, V'he sheh amda.... 

V'hee she'amda lavoteinu velanu
Shelo echad bilvad amad aleinu lechaloteinu
Eh'la she'b'chol dor va'dor
Omdiim aleinu lechaloteinu
Vehakadosh baruch hu matzileinu miyadam

And this is what kept our ancestors and what keeps us surviving. For, not only one arose and tried to destroy us, rather in every generation they try to destroy us, and God saves us from their hands.

(Here's a group of yeshiva guys singing this week it in a bomb shelter while awaiting their Rabbi to begin the class).

If you don't know the song, start learning it today and by the time Pesach arrives you'll sing it like a pro.

So when they're attacking us in Israel, we understand that because we're "occupiers" or "land stealers." Even in New York we could maybe imagine it's a sociological issue, you know such population density. 

But why are they attacking us in Lyons, Bondi Beach, Jackson, and now Detroit?

The truth is that their hatred is mostly religious, sometimes cloaked in tactful politesse.

Just look at the recent ruling of the European Court of Human Rights: the old Wittenberg Cathedral (home of Martin Luther himself, a major amplifier of this hatred) may continue to display on the outside wall one of the most hideous, disgusting, offensive, painful Jew-hating images ever created - the "Jew Pig."

What was the Court's reason? Because the congregation had installed a plaque nearby declaring that this sculpture is historical but doesn't reflect their modern sensibilities.

Oh really?  

BTW - there are about 30 churches in Europe that choose to continue to be adorned with a "Jew Pig."

(Hat-tip to Michael Duelman, who fought this legal battle for nearly a decade.)

One of the biggest attacks on us has been the 150-year-old battle against our national holiday - Passover.

The central ritual of Passover is to tell the story of the Exodus. But if the Exodus never happened, then apparently our entire religion is a mythology.

Personally, I have no problem believing in and telling a story that my parents and grandparents told me.

But these attacks — some by Jewish clergy — have confused people. Is Judaism ultimately a fairy tale? Does the Torah belong on the same shelf as Aesop's Fables — some nice moral lessons, but with no greater verisimilitude than any other mythology?

To respond to these attacks, I'm pleased to announce a new book - Restoring the Exodus: The Rational Case for the Biblical Narrative

Hardcover
Kindle version
iBooks version

You don't need to wait long for the paperback (pocket-size)... it should be available on Sunday. Just in time to order a stack for your Seder.


Shabbat Shalom


PS - You can now get our free Passover download at TorahHealth.org.