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Pesach begins on Wednesday night (1/4). Candle lighting after 6:55pm, then on Thursday night (2/4) light candles from an existing flame after 7:51pm. On Friday (3/4), light Shabbat candles from  an existing flame at 6.51pm. Shabbat ends at 7:52pm.

Move the clock one hour back to end DST.

Second Days of Pesach begin on Tuesday (7/4) with candle lighting at 5:47pm. Then on Wednesday night (8/4) light candles after 6:43pm. Pesach ends Thursday night (9/4) at 6:41pm.

Mincha will resume on 13 April after Pesach. See the WhatsApp group for further info.

Weekly sushi & shiur will resume on Wed 15 Apr at 1.10pm at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: dividing common property. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Rabbi Dovid Gutnick.

We cleave to an illusion of control.

We pursue that facile master called certainty. Our weakness drives us to insist on knowing, on controlling. We retreat into comfortable echo chambers where everything is designed to reinforce our narrow dogmas, censoring voices that might introduce even the slightest fissure of alternative. And yet, beneath it all, something deeper stirs: an irrepressible human instinct to be free and embark on the journey into the vast unknown; to appreciate the wonder of uncertainty.

Ironically, the more we grasp for control, the weaker we become. Study after study confirms it: the stronger the need for control, the greater the anxiety and uncertainty. The tighter we hold the wheel, the less secure we feel.

The great thinkers sensed this long ago. Shakespeare: “Come what come may. Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. One way or another, what’s going to happen is going to happen.” Ralph Ellison: “Life is to be lived, not controlled.” Epictetus: “Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.” Doris Day: “Que sera, sera — whatever will be, will be.”

But the Torah offers a perspective deeper still.

At the dawn of redemption, as the journey to emancipation and the birth of our peoplehood is about to unfold, Moshe asks G-d for His name, possibly as a way to anchor faith amidst uncertainty. And G-d responds:

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh.”

Some translate this as “I am who I am.” Others render it more accurately: “I will be who I will be.” Or, as Robert Alter suggests: “I am He who endures.”

The Jewish people are about to step into the unknown. They are leaving behind a reality that, while oppressive, was at least predictable. Facing the great journey into uncertainty, some could not take the leap. The Midrash suggests that four-fifths remained behind.

Because to be born as a free people requires conviction in the face of our greatest fears – to take those first eddying steps into the uncertain. The very root of that phrase ה־י־ה (to be) means being or presence. What is God’s name? Presence – enduring, non-abandoning presence.

It is worth noting that in response to the Divine presence and calling, Moshe makes his famous declaration: “Hineni” – I am present

Perhaps this is the resounding truth at the heart of Pesach, and indeed of our personal journey toward freedom and transformation: When our “Hineni”(presence and conviction) meets Hashem’s “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” (enduring presence), redemption is at hand.