Nissan 5785 / April 2025
As is our tradition before Passover (as per Rebbe’s vision and encouragement) enclosed are three round handmade Shmurah Matzahs for use at your Passover Seder. And each year we try to write a different Matzah “cover-letter” with a theme fitting and appropriate for that year.
This year’s theme? Eggs!
There was much buzz in the news this year over eggs and their skyrocketing prices or limited availability, they’re a prominent feature on the Seder plate, and also found in many Kosher for Passover foods and desserts. You would not believe how many eggs we go through at Shabbos House over Passover! While there’s no eggs in traditional Passover Matzah, thanks to the Eggs-odus cracking through the shell of the exile, Pharaoh (a rotten egg) ended up with egg on his face after 10 plagues, and he couldn’t eggs-pell the Jews fast enough.
Eggs on the Seder plate have an eggs-ellent message for us throughout Jewish history and especially in these times: Most foods the longer you cook them the softer they get. Not eggs! Eggs symbolize the hard-boiled Jewish strength and courage that often responds to more exposure to the challenging increasing heat. Our yolk doesn’t run in times like these.
Scientifically, eggs act as an emulsifier, bonding with and attracting opposing properties, keeping a diverse spectrum thriving together in unison—as we hope holidays do for our families, and Shabbos House strives to do for our students and Jewish campus community.
The egg on the Seder plate is an indirect symbolism of the “Chagigah” holiday Temple sacrifice, indeed, one Talmudic tractate dealing with holiday laws is titled “Beitzah” (egg). And in Talmudic/Aramaic, the word for egg is “Beyah” which can also mean: pray, ask, entreat—and this Passover we have lots to ask and hope for, up until & including “Next Year in Jerusalem!”
As we egg-sport this Matzah, we’re scrambling to get ready for Passover, to be properly prepared for the type of accessible and meaningful Seders, delicious Passover meals and memorable events that our students have come to eggs-tol and eggs-pect. We’re eggs-ited!
This Passover we eggs-tend to you and yours New York State motto wishes of Eggs-elcior (ever upwards!) aside for the prices, of course. May those come down, may good news rise up!
Best redemptive Passover wishes,
Mendel and Raizy Rubin