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Thank YouToda – Uzi Hitmanתודה - עוזי חיטמןמילים: עוזי חיטמןChorus: Thanks for all that You've created,Thanks for what You've given me. For our eyesight,A friend or two,For what I have in the world.For the song which flows,And a forgiving heart -Because of all this - I exist.Thanks for all that You've created,Thanks for what You've given me.  For a child's laughter,And the blue sky,For the earth - and a warm home.A corner to sit in,A loving woman,Because of all this -...

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Time-servers are the cowering slaves of slaves,Alone on earth, who serves the Lord is free,Each soul shall win the gift that it most craves;Seek God, my soul -- God shall your portion be!

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The plagues God visited on the Egyptians in Egypt seem to be a parade of people’s greatest fears, a mythological show of the power of the living versus primal fear. Starting from the blood of birth and of death, through primal human fears of small creatures (lice) and large ones (wild beasts), fear of financial ruin (locusts), fear of the dark (losing direction and meaning), we face the greatest fear: the fear of our children’s lives – loss of the future....

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Korech:  Mixing the Bitter and the SweetOne of my favorite moments of the seder comes just before dinner is served.  It is called Korech.  It is also known as the Hillel sandwich.  It is the moment when we eat maror (the bitter herbs) and the charoset (the sweet apple and nut mixture) on a piece of matzah.  What a strange custom to eat something so bitter and something so sweet all in one bite.  I can taste it now, just thinking...

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The Torah speaks of four Daughters: one possessing wisdom of the heart, one rebellious, one simple and pure, and one who cannot ask questions. The daughter possessing wisdom of the heart what does she say? "Father, your decree is harsher than Pharoah's. The decree of the wicked Pharoah may or may not have been fulfilled, but you who are righteous, your decree surely is realized." The father heeded his daughter (Miriam). So we too follow in her steps with drums and...

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“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” 

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I went to Cyprus to see what could be done – if anything could be done – regarding the hundreds of children who were being held there. At that time there were 40,000 Jews incarcerated in the Cyprus camps and each month the British, with their punctuality and exactness, allowed 1,500 Jews to enter the Land of Israel: 750 came from the camps in Europe and 750 from Cyprus. In Cyprus the certificates were granted on a “first in, first out”...

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When a person eats and drinks [as part of celebrating a holiday], they are obligated to feed "the stranger, the orphan, and the widow" (Deuteronomy 16:11).But someone who locks the doors of their house, eating and drinking with their children and spouse [alone], and doesn't provide food or drink to the poor and depressed, is not participating in the joy of [God's] commandments but rather the joy of the gut, and about them it says, "their sacrifices are like bread for...