There's (These Days Literally) No Place Like Home

I would imagine you’re reading this at home.

“There’s no place like home.”

“Home is where the heart is.”

“What I love most about my home is who I share it with.”

There is a lot of sharing going on these days.

Home is the place my wife, my four children (yes, Meira came back from Israel due to the situation there), and I spend LOTS of time together these days.  I am sure this is a familiar feeling.

HHH  Home is also, interestingly, a central motif in Parshat HaChodesh (Shemot 12:1-20), which is read this Shabbat.  God tells the Jews that each home should take a lamb for the Pesach sacrifice.  If a home is too small for a lamb of its own, that home should join with neighbors.  The blood of the lamb should be placed on the doorposts of the home as a sign that is a Jewish one.  God will smite the Egyptian firstborn while passing over every Jewish home. 

In reading Parshat HaChodesh, we cannot help but see how the home is integral in the Pesach story.  We know that Pesach is a home holiday.  It is about family and tradition.  This year, even for many who go away and have never been home for Pesach, we are all focused on the home.

We know that Judaism focuses on family.  At this time, though, our world literally revolves around and within the home.  We are cut off from family, friends, and community.  Our whole world is the home.

A member of the community recounted that when he was growing in the 60's, the great majority of people he knew celebrated Pesach with only their nuclear family since many in his community were the children of Holocaust survivors.  There were no grandparents.  This year, he noted, it will be like that again.

A Pesach with just the nuclear family may sound lonely or less exciting.  I feel that pain as my children will not celebrate Pesach with their grandparents as planned.  Let’s face it.  A lot in the world is not going as planned.  This week’s Torah reading, though, reminds us of the importance, necessity, and power of the home.  

“Maybe the reason you can never go home again is that, once you’re back, you can never leave…”

The home provides us with our values, shapes our identities, and fuels our behavior.  The home is with us always.  These days, we are spending a lot of time at home.  It may frustrate some of us and drive us crazy.  At the same time, the home is where we need to be right now, and we need our home to shape who we need to be. 

So let’s all strive to ensure our homes remain “home, sweet home.”  Let’s talk to each other more, share with each other more, show kindness with each other more, and use out time together at home to reinforce the best we have within ourselves.  Hopefully, the will transform us and the world around us when, please God, we all get to leave home and return to the world outside.  (For some meaningful sentiments to provide perspective, see HERE.)

I close with the traditional birkat ha-bayit, blessing for the home:

בְּזֶה הַשַּׁעַר לֹא יָבוֹא צַעַר. בְּזֹאת הַדִּירָה לֹא תָבוֹא צָרָה. בְּזֹאת הַדֶּלֶת לֺא תָבוֹא בֶּהָלָה. בְּזֹאת הַמַּחְלָקָה לֺא תָבוֹא מַחְלוֺקֶת. בְּזֶה הַמָּקוֺם תְּהִי בְרָכָה וְשָׁלוֺם.

Let no pain come through this gate.  Let no trouble come to this dwelling.  Let no fear come through this door.  Let no conflict be in this place.  Let this home be filled with the blessing of joy and peace.

AMEN!