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A Door That Hire

PHIL JACOBS EDITOR

ur sages offer the supernatural Jews are not turning Christian blood into matzah or

Sabbath illusion of angels look- wine. Instead, we are showing the rest of the world

ing in through our windows that we are rededicating ourselves to God and to

from the outside. The "good" an-

Torah.

gel enters the home of the fam-

That's a great deal to say of a portal that typical-

ily who holds the Sabbath holy. The "evil" angel enters

ly stays deadbolted and sealed from potential

when the Sabbath is merely taken for granted.

strangers, Avon ladies and a Jehovah's Witness or

Come Pesach, Jewish families have an opportuni-

two. We use the door to hide our interiors, our per-

ty to show from the spiritual inside out where their

sonal baggage from the exterior. But at this one mo-

convictions lie. All we have to do is open the front

ment — you know the one, just after the Grace after

door.

Meals during the recitation of She foch chamaecha

Some of us open the door twice, more of us just once.

or "Pour out your wrath upon the heathens that did

Whatever the number, we're "inviting all those who

not know you" — this is the time Jews, be they Or-

are hungry to eat." We're asking the prophet Elijah,

thodox, Conservative or Reform, open the door.

the precursor of the Messianic age, to join us for a

How many of us share the experience of having

fifth cup of wine. And according to scholars, both an-

opened that door as a child only to return to the seder

cient and current, we're using an open door

table with the amount of wine in Elijah's

to show the rest of the world that we as

cup somehow lowered a few levels?

U)

UJ

C/D

46

Opening our spiritual "deadbolts"
after the fourth cup of wine.

(-2

N

