04/01/2026
Dear Friends,
This week the Jewish community begins the observance of Passover – our holiday of freedom and liberation. It is a time when our historical memory, the shared journey of our transition out of enslavement, is most present and most activated. Through the rituals of the seder, we retell our ancestors' journey out of Egypt and consider the ways in which we must still work to ensure freedom for all people.
The Haggadah includes the recitation of the ten plagues; ten moments that increased in intensity and eventually led to Pharaoh relenting. One of those plagues, darkness, feels most relevant this year. That plague is relevant precisely because it is not the end of our story. It is just a step along the journey toward freedom.
Two weeks ago, at a benefit concert hosted by Longmeadow High School music students, I shared one of my favorite biblical verses. In Proverbs 30:6 we read that “one may lie down in the nightfall, but at dawn there are calls of joy.”
To say it another way: it is always darkest before dawn.
This moment feels dark. People around the world are suffering from war and violence. In our own country, we have neighbors who are afraid and families that are going hungry. In a historic turn away from our nation’s ideals and values, those who seek stability and security cannot find it here. And although we might want to, we cannot simply will the morning to come faster by pretending that night does not exist.
We are allowed to be unsettled by the dark, but the holiday of Passover teaches us that the darkness we see today should also call us into action.
Why? Because we are a people who has seen dawn break over and over again across the long arc of our history. We are here because our ancestors believed in that dawn even when they could not see it. And we should continue to believe in that possibility and work toward that reality. That is the message of Passover.
Chag Pesach Sameach (Happy Passover),
Rabbi James Greene
Chief Executive Officer
