OFF THE BOOKSHELF- PESACH 2022

Recently, a Yavneh parent suggested a book entitled The Coaching Habit. The author, Michael Bungay Stainer, states that he reads more than 100 business related books each year. Much of The Coaching Habit centers around the art of asking questions, and specifically around asking the right questions. For example, what types of questions lead to meaningful and deep conversation? As we anticipate the Pesach seder, a night structured around the art of asking questions, isn't that what we pine for…how can we best engage our children in a deep and meaningful fashion?

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his Haggadah first published nearly 20 years ago, has an essay entitled The Art of Asking Questions. There, he writes that “Judaism is a faith, more than any other, that values the mind, encouraging questions and engaging us at the highest level of intellectual rigour.” He also develops three conditions for asking questions…1) a genuine desire to learn, 2) accepting the limits of our own understanding, and 3) that we learn by doing. “In Judaism,” he writes, “to be without questions is not a sign of faith but of lack of depth... Judaism is a religion of questions.”

We are all occupied with our Pesach preparations in one form or another. Each year, I remind my students that this night is the singular, most important night on the calendar for Jewish education. It is the night when we pass on our ideas, and our ideals, to our children.

More recently, I have started to imagine what I hope my own children will take away from our seder. I am not referring only to divrei Torah, but also to feelings, emotions, and a deepening life perspective. The seder often unfolds in various formats - trying to envision in advance through our own mental preparation what we want our children to internalize from that exalted evening can help us maintain focus on the true goals of this unique night of Jewish education.

What are the questions that we adults ponder? And what questions do we hope to share with our children? Some with answers and some without…

Wishing you all an uplifting, spirited, spiritual and meaningful chag,

Rabbi Jonathan Knapp

Head of School