Mark Gerson: Take Inventory of Yourself

And Judaism may be said to rest on two pillars of faith: the creation and the Exodus. Hence the staggering significance of Passover, which you keep emphasizing is actually that, not Rosh Hashanah, is the new year in, in the Bible. Why don't you explain that?

Right. Yeah, so the key to understanding Passover is identifying what It is in the Bible. Now, in the Bible, it tells us that the holiday is our new year. It says it occurs at the head of months, leading us to the question, is what am I supposed to do with the new year? And the answer is we're supposed to take inventory of ourselves now and to consider what kind of people individually and what kind of people collectively and nationally do I hope to become in the coming year. And the Haggadah exists to guide us through that great question, that great set of questions, to enable us to live happier, better, and more meaningful lives in the most practical and actionable ways in the year to come.

You even point out correctly the staggering significance of matzah. So briefly explain that.

Well, the key to understanding matzah is salt. When we put salt on yeast, the yeast does not rise. So salt in the ancient context was the great store of value. It's where the term salary comes from. And why was it so valuable? It's because it's the ancient preservative. It's the second best thing to refrigeration. So as we eat matzah and as we purge our homes of chametz during that week, we should think, what in my life do I wanna preserve and what in my life do I wanna discard as the new year approaches?

[Speaker] I know, I remember reading the salary line and it blew my mind. Listen, congratulations. Not many people have taken the time to do what you have done and do it so well. Mark Gerson, the book is The Telling, and anyone— Jew, Christian, anyone, even neither— will benefit from it. Congratulations. Thank you so much. My pleasure. Mark Gerson, The Telling. It should be up at DennisPrager.com. Now I'm going to do some telling.