Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
How do you change the world? What do you do first, what’s your top priority? Here is a wonderful insight from Rav Moshe-Zvi Neria:
“The way of the world is that when there is a revolution or drastic external change, everyone gets caught up in it – in what’s going on outside – pushing away private matters and neglecting family life. No one considers that it is precisely at such moments when it is especially important to invest more time and effort in the home.”
We are accustomed to going out into the street – to the public square, to demonstrations and mass gatherings - because it would appear that the important things are happening there. But in the Exodus from Egypt, in the midst of that world changing event, we received instructions on how to conduct the first Seder. “Each family is called upon to eat by itself, at home,” Rav Neria continues. “Public figures too are obligated to set aside community obligations at this time for the sake of a family meal, the first of its kind to be eaten with regal bearing as free people. This is done so that the entire nation can stabilize itself. Enhancing stability at home and in the family comes first".
The greatest revolution in human history – where slavery lost its validity for all time – began between the kitchen and the dining room.
