Good, Bad, Or Ugly?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 25-26, 2025 • 28 Nissan 5785 • Shemini (Lev 9-11).
In memory of my maternal uncle Mike Goodman (Michael ben Chaim) who passed away last week and whose Shiva is being observed this week.

In honor of Uncle Mike (see note above), this week's questions are about art.

Mike was a very special kind of artist, what we call an artisan. His chosen art form was rare MGs and occasionally other sports cars. He was one of those guys who could dismantle a car and rebuild it like new. What a career for a guy born and bred in LA. 

While he loved his work, he also loved people, and would do anything for anyone. He truly made the world a better place.

May his memory be for a blessing.

Speaking of artistry, try asking at the Shabbat table: how did you like last week's AI rendition of Abraham Lincoln as a Biblical shepherd?

Good, bad, or ugly?

Assuming the former, here's the 2nd question for the table: Who gets artistic credit?

On one hand, I indeed conceived the project, instructed the AI, and guided it to completion.

On the other hand, I certainly did not create the image.

Where is the "soul" of art — in the idea, or the execution, or both?

How about this week's self-portrait in bronze? Scale of 1 to 10?

It would take me many, many years of study to create such art from my own hands.

I imagine that people have been asking these questions since the invention of recorded music. 

Now, not everyone cares about visual arts or even musical arts. But I would like to suggest that everyone has an artist within.

How so?

This is a very Jewish take: our lives have the potential to be a work of art. But no AI can ever create my life for me - I have to be the artist. 

And... if you'll allow me to use a music analogy: we are all like musicians in a giant orchestra, so while we can each make beautiful solo music, there's nothing like playing together in harmony.

That, in a nutshell, is the point of Judaism — it's a musical score! All those rules? They're like all the notes, the key signatures and time signatures, the dynamics.... there are rules of intonation and of rhythm.... and when we are all playing the same score, we create a great symphony.

Perhaps AI can create great art, but not the greatest art? What would Uncle Mike say?


Shabbat Shalom


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Who's Happier - Avraham or Abraham?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 18-19, 2025 • 21 Nissan 5785 • Pesach (Ex 13:17-15:26).

Try this opener at your table: When's the last time you thought about John F. Kennedy? 

No, flying into JFK Airport doesn't count.

(I wonder: does getting an airport named after you raise or lower your standing in History?)

53 years ago, on April 29, 1962, President Kennedy hosted fifty Nobel laureates and dozens of other intellectuals for dinner. He famously quipped, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

Since Jefferson, the US has been lead by several great intellectuals, not the least of whom was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was remarkable in that he was mostly self-taught and had such a thirst for learning that he was rarely seen without a book. One of the keys to his learning was "by never being ashamed to confess his ignorance of what in fact he did not know, by always asking questions where he could probably elicit information, and by studying all his life. I have seen him repeatedly around upon the circuit with school books" (Leonard Swett, a lawyer who worked with Lincoln).

We are fortunate to live in a world that honors learning and people like this on pedestals.

But there are two questions we should ask about these role models.

First, these people all have natural gifts. Sure, one can (and should) be a lifelong learner like Lincoln. But not everyone is cut out to be constantly studying, are they?

Second – and more important – does knowledge lead to happiness?

Perhaps it does for some. 

But achieving breakthroughs in knowledge, even on a personal level, can take months or years of work, and it's hard work. Jefferson himself quipped, "Most people will go to any amount of trouble to avoid the effort of thinking."

For those who don't feel cut out for such intellectual life, you may be interested in the 2025 "World Happiness Report" from the Oxford University's Wellbeing Research Centre. Based on data from 140 countries, they have concluded that one way to achieve   And turns out that one way to become instantly happier is sharing a meal. 

And they found that the health impact of the opposite – loneliness and isolation – is "roughly equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day."

It turns out that our Patriarch Avraham was both an intellectual and a great gatherer of people to eat together. But we remember him primarily for the latter quality. His intellect was a gift, his learning was certainly a pursuit, but his loving kindness via food was his art.  

Abraham Lincoln's art was politics, and he saved his country. Not bad.

Avraham Avinu's art was people, and he saved the world.

May we all learn to cultivate the great arts of happiness.

Happy Pesach and 

Shabbat Shalom

This message also appears on my Times of Israel blog.

You Better Think (Think) Think ...

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 11-12, 2025 • 14 Nissan 5785 • Tzav (Lev. 6-8).
 

 

This morning someone in a Jewish chat group voiced the following sentiment:

I don't celebrate Passover. Oh, freedom, when there are prisoners. There is no spirit. There is no strength in the body to prepare and clean the house. It is impossible to watch the news without dizziness. Enemies from outside, conflicts from within, quarrels of different groups within the country. It is like living in a boiling kettle. 

This person is making a strong point: how can we sit down at a Seder tomorrow night and celebrate freedom when so many people - including our brothers and sisters in Gaza?

"What kind of freedom is it when 59 people are still in Hamas hell?"
- Liri Albag, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza for 15 months

This is a powerful question and anyone with a heart should be asking it.

Someone else said to me yesterday, "People today who have always lived in freedom cannot appreciate freedom the way that someone can who literally escaped ______ [name an oppressive country] with their lives."

I hear the point. Just this week, a member of my Zoom Talmud group was recounting his escape as a child from Germany to Shanghai and what it felt like on that final leg to America. I heard his story, and I've read many stories, but I haven't lived them.

But these questions from current events and personal experience underscores a more fundamental question that I have about the Pesach Seder.

No matter which Haggadah you use – Maxwell House traditional, modern, rationalized, simplified, expanded, Amazing – I'm pretty sure that you'll be reading the words, In each and every generation a person is obligated to see himself as if he personally left Egypt.

Everyone always likes to ask, "What's your favorite part of Pesach?" 

Nothing wrong with that question, it's a fine conversation-starter.

But try also asking this one: "What's the hardest part of Pesach for you?"

We expect the middle of the bell curve to answer "not eating chametz for a week" or "eating matzah for a week."

But my personal answer is, Trying to fulfill "In each and every generation..."

How are you supposed to do that?

And in our particular generation, living through such difficult times for Jews presently, all the more so - how can you feel liberated today? 

I believe this is an excellent question for your Shabbat table and encourage you to think about it and discuss it.

It turns out that it's not actually a new question. Remember that other "every generation" line in the Haggadah? "In every generation they try to destroy us..."

Some or most of our deep-thinking commentators lived through times as bad or far worse than today. Not one of them ever suggested cancelling our holiday of Freedom in light of current events.

But some have suggested interpreting Passover as a message and meditation deeper than mere History.

Each element of the Seder - chametz, matzah, maror, 4 cups of wine, etc. - is symbolic of your and my soul-journey in this world and "enslavement" to our bodily needs and desires. 

The Chinuch (13th Century) writes (based on the Talmud), "The yeast in the flour raises itself up and inflates itself [which represents arrogance]. Therefore, we distance ourselves from it, as reflected in the verse, “Every arrogant heart is an abomination to God” (Proverbs 16:5).

Rav E. E. Dessler (20th C) writes, "Everything has an inner aspect to it ... The exile in Egypt appears to a normal person as if it was a physical slavery. But a spiritually-oriented person sees that it was a slavery of the soul, and that this was the real cause for physical slavery. In short, we were slaves to the yetzer hara (bad inclination).... The Torah calls Egypt Mitzrayim, from the root meitzar, which means “constriction” and “distress.” It also signifies “boundary.”

The rushing out of Egypt represents the reality that negative habits like laziness and arrogance are defeated when one acts with zeal, with alacrity, with focus and determination. When the alarm goes off, an inner voice says, "Hey, how about 5 more minutes? Let's hit the snooze button!" Another voice says, "No way, we have to get up and change the world!" The first voice tries again, "What's the rush? We can change the world in five minutes!" Back and forth you go until it's half an hour later. 

What's the solution? As soon as the alarm rings, leap out of bed! That's the moral of rushing out of Egypt and not having time for the dough to rise.

 

Yeast in the dough represents the yetzer hara in our hearts makes us leavened. - Rashi

That's something to mediate on while eating your matzah.

May you and yours, and I and mine, and all the Jewish People, and all good people, be personally liberated (physically, spiritually and any other way).


Shabbat Shalom and

Happy Pesach

PS - Still time to download the 2025 JSLI Pesach Kit...


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Ready for Matzah-Fest?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 4-5, 2025 • 7 Nissan 5785 • Vayikra (Lev. 1-5).
 

The 2025 JSLI Pesach Kit is now available for download!

 

THE 2025 KIT INCLUDES:

Preparing for the Seder / Seder Checklist / Art of Amazement Haggadah / Bingo Cards / Charades / Seder Scramble / Coloring pages / Seder Trivia Questions

…and more !!!

What's new this year? Only one way to find out...

jsli.org/passover-kit/

Wishing you HHH — a Holy & Happy Holiday.
 

The JSLI Kit (linked above) is designed for someone running the Seder. For everyone else, I would recommend any or all of these books:

Out Of Egypt
Dual Discovery
Katz Haggadah
The Exodus You Almost Passed Over
What Do You See on Pesach? (board book)


Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

 – What do you normally do to prepare for Pesach?
 – What do you sometimes wish you did to prepare but don't normally do?


Shabbat Shalom


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