When the Prophet Micah wrote “For Torah will go forth from Zion, and the Word of the Lord from  Jerusalem” in 700 BC it was a nothing more than a platitude. Seriously, how would you possibly get the  word from Jerusalem to North America in 700 BC? 
   
Today we see a word, an idea, spread around the world in a second. Google, Amazon and Facebook  track them (God help us).  We are the first people in human history where a thought – either wise or  foolish, can spread through the world in an instant. 

When we live in Philadelphia, we attend Congregation Mekor Habracha. We’re the old people there by  an average of 40 years. It’s humbling. And it's heartwarming to see young men – lawyers, doctors and  MBA students, local businesspeople, good Americans, capable of conducting a service and reading the  Torah. 

For me, the high point of Friday night and Shabbat morning is hearing Rabbi Eliezer Hirsch’s words of  Torah. Often, he takes contemporary events to show where practical solutions are available to us in our  collective Jewish Wisdom. The same problems with smart time‐tested Jewish insights. I think that’s why  the kids come. He’s not a [typical] Rabbi.   

We heard he had published a Seder companion, “Bringing Order to the Seder: A Modern Guide to the  Traditional Passover Haggadah Kindle Edition”. In seconds it was on my desktop and my Kindle.   

I share with you how he starts out his guide. 

With our best wishes for you to be Blessed with the experience of a meaningful Seder ‐‐ a night filled  with new, personal insights into the meaning of the Jewish experience. 
~~ Eli and Leah Fendrich  Nahariya ISRAEL   

​

R’ Shlomo Carlebach was well known for inspirational musical storytelling. I sometimes begin the  Passover Seder with his legendary story about Yossele the Holy Miser, a very rich man who lived in the  city of Krakow and was considered a stingy, mean miser.  Everyone judged him for not doing anything to alleviate the suffering of the women, children, and elderly  in the ghetto. They even prayed that God would punish him.   He eventually became old and sick, and he died, but the burial society refused to bury him inside the  cemetery.   
Just before the following Shabbat, the poor community began approaching the rabbi, one by one, for  money. It turned out that they had each been receiving weekly anonymous gifts of money, and the Rabbi  discovered that Yossele had been the secret donor.   The Rabbi became very upset, because they had all treated Yossele badly, and so he gathered everyone  together at the synagogue to ask Yossele for forgiveness.  Yossele came to the Rabbi in a vision and said, “I forgive everyone, because long ago I asked God to let  me help people the way He does, without anyone knowing or giving thanks." And that’s the legend of  Yossele the Holy Miser.   

But there is another part to R’ Shlomo’s story.
In the early 70' s, he was invited to a multidenominational  conference. When his turn came to perform, he decided to tell the story of Yossele.   In the audience sat Joe the Bishop, attending the conference as a Catholic representative. Joe  approached R’ Shlomo and thanked him for the moving story.
Eventually, Joe made a startling  confession: “In truth, my real name is Yossele. My mother survived the Dachau concentration camp; my  father was a Catholic soldier who saved her life, took her to America, married her, and made her promise  never to tell her children they were Jews.   I grew up a devout Catholic and have a distinguished career in the Catholic church. But I recently got a  call from my mother, who was on her deathbed. When I came to her bedside, she told me that my real  name is Yossele, named after her father, who was a very pious Hassidic Jew, who was named after his  grandfather, Yossele the holy miser from Krakow.   She told me all about Judaism, Shabbat, holidays, and all the poor people who lived in my grandfather's  house. She died 2 days later, and her last words to me were, ‘Don’t forget, your name is not Joe, your  name is Yossele.’   
​I was very distraught, and I begged God for a sign: if I hear the name “Yossele from Krakow” one more  time, I’ll know I must become Jewish.   So, here I am at this convention, and you tell this story! This is a clear sign from God, and I am leaving for  Jerusalem tomorrow."   

Seven and a half years later, R’ Shlomo received a letter from Joe, now Yossele, saying that he had  become an observant Jew, was marrying an observant Jewish woman in Jerusalem, and expressing  gratitude to R’ Shlomo for being his messenger from God. 

I do not know if the story is true, but I always felt it to be a fitting and powerful introduction to the Seder.  In his own unique way, R’ Shlomo was reminding all of us that no matter how our lives have unfolded,  deep down, we are all Yossele. We all spring from our Jewish heritage and nothing can change that. It is  who we are, and we should embrace it. I believe that is, in a nutshell, the essential theme of the Seder.   
Hirsch, Rabbi Eliezer. Bringing Order to the Seder: A Modern Guide to the Traditional Passover Haggadah  (Kindle Locations 54‐63). Kindle Edition.