Posted on March 27, 2026 by Rabbi Noah Diamondstein
Dear friends,
Including a sermon as a fixed part of Jewish Shabbat worship was not always the standard. Before the Reform Movement’s rise in the early 1800’s in Central Europe, sermons were actually quite rare. A congregant of a traditional synagogue could expect to hear from their rabbi in a homiletical style at only two key times each year. One, perhaps unsurprisingly, was Erev Yom Kippur, better known as Kol Nidrei night. The other was a Shabbat known as Shabbat HaGadol, or the ‘Great Shabbat,’ the name given to the Shabbat immediately preceding Passover.
Rosh Hashanah falls in the seventh month on the Hebrew calendar, and is not the new year for the Jewish People alone but rather for the entire world. The numbering of our year that increases each Rosh Hashanah (this year being 5786) does not refer back to the beginning of the Jewish People alone but to the entire cosmos! In other words, according to the traditional reading of the TaNaKh, God created the world over the course of 7 days as discussed in Genesis 5786 years ago. The New Year for the Jews, then, is at this time of year, beginning with the first day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar–the month of Nisan, with Pesach constituting our festival celebration of that renewal. Indeed, as Rashi teaches in his commentary, the first mitzvah handed down by God to the Jewish People as a People, rather than to one individual such as Abraham, is the setting of the calendar: “This month shall be for you the first of the months…” (Exodus 12:2)
The sermon on Shabbat HaGadol, then, was a chance for a leader to offer their community a critical message as our People began yet another year around the sun. For those who might miss my Shabbat HaGadol sermon tonight, as per tradition, I still want you to hear from your rabbi as we journey into another Jewish year, and so I’ll close by giving you the short and sweet crux of my message for this moment:
We are not a People that shies away from brokenness in the world. On the contrary, we name that brokenness even at our most joyful occasions! We hold onto the vision that any person or family could be the catalyst that leads us down the path toward a redemptive future. Opening the door for Elijah and finishing with the refrain of “Next year in Jerusalem” embodies our hope that the Messianic Age might finally be realized. We are, to our core, a People of hope. People of hope see brokenness in the world, and respond by seeking out how they can do their portion of the work of repairing it. To that end, I hope that your Passover seder this year includes at least some critical conversation about how we take the lessons of the haggadah with us after Pesach. How can we be more welcoming, more attuned to others’ suffering, and help pave the road to freedom for all people? May our seders inspire us to take what steps we can toward that redemptive vision in the year ahead.
Shabbat HaGadol Shalom, and Happy Passover!
Rabbi Noah Diamondstein