Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
More than a week has passed since Seder night. You remember it, don't you? Most of us have already eaten rolls, unpacked our suitcases, done our laundry, and returned to our routine - to our studies and to our work, since, after all, the holiday is over. It's behind us.
Yesterday someone told me that Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner would instruct his students during these days as follows:
"Don't say the holiday is over and done, but that the holiday has given us something more. Each holiday penetrates us, builds another story within us, leaves us with a blessing, brings about a change. We must not allow ourselves to just pass through the holidays, much less lose our memory of them, but rather treasure our holiday experiences. Let us for just one moment recall a single feeling, prayer, song, or family memory - and not allow it to disappear within the daily routine, but take it with us instead.
"We must be able to look back, several months or even several years from now, and tell ourselves: This is what I took from that Seder, this is what I began doing then, this is the transformation that began within me during that holiday."
So what did we take from Pesach, 5782?