At Touro April 9, 2016

At Touro synagogue yesterday Rabbi Marc Mandel spoke briefly about the Torah reading. First he reviewed last week, when the focus was on preparations. In the parsha it was about preparing for the Temple Service. Rabbi Mandel stressed the importance of preparation and education throughout our lives. On Saturday among the readings we learned about Passover.  TheRabbi drew attention to the Seder. We do things differently to encourage questions, and of course the Seder attempts to answer the Four Questions and any others that we ask.  The Rabbi referred to a short-named philosopher known for questioning. The names of philosophers flew across the shul from Plato to Kant and from Aristotle to Hume but the congregation was stumped-he was referring to Rene Descartes. Rabbi Mandel suggested that we should ask ourselves, "Why do we do the things we do?"