A seder for Scott
Prime Minister Scott Morrison attended the Shabbat/Passover service 0n Friday night at the Ark Centre in Melbourne’s Hawthorn East.
Prime Monister Scott Morrison, Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg
Accompanying the prime minister was treasurer Josh Frydenberg who is a member of the congregation.
Scott Morrison told the service that he was “a great admirer” of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
He said: “When I speak to my Christian friends, I say you should read a lot of Rabbi Sacks’ work. He knows a lot about the Old Testament. He knows it a lot better than us. He was a very wise man. And he said of this time, and I think of all times, that as you come together to celebrate Passover, teach your children the history of freedom if you want them to never lose.
We can become complacent about freedom. We can become complacent about our prosperity. We can become complacent about so many things that we could take for granted as a country as amazing as Australia, where so many have come and found freedom and found prosperity.”
He continued: “I love the community of faith. Something else Rabbi Sacks wrote, he said the purpose of Judaism is to honour the image of God in our people, and this is something very special about the Jewish community. There is a deeply held belief in the dignity of every single human being. Everything else comes from there. Everything flows from there. And that isn’t an Arabic belief, it’s a belief in both the frailty of every human being, as well as their strength. And in appreciating the frailties of others and the vulnerabilities of others, we understand the vulnerabilities and frailties of ourselves. And that leads to the other great thing that I love about Rabbi Sacks’ work when he talks about the covenant of community because it’s a community of people who understand their weaknesses and their strengths and their vulnerabilities and their passions
Scott Morrison and Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann
Never, ever forget the incredible price that has been paid for our freedom and our liberty and the wonderful life we’re allowed to live in this country. And through telling the story and the passing down of that story, it creates connection, it connects generations.
He spoke about those who come together to celebrate Passover and gather around the same table.
He said: “It is a time to remember that all of these things never came easily. And there were those who went before us to ensure that we could enjoy them in this country. But our faith inspires us and we share it with our children. So our children and our communities never forget. It connects values that underpin community and family. And we’re encouraged to rededicate ourselves to those things, as we gather in the bonds of family and community. And that’s why I love places like this. . And it all comes together and creates a beautiful community that isn’t focused in here, but in true faith communities, they focus out. And the work that you do to support your community, and to have reached out to your community over the course of this trial of the pandemic, of these testing times of the pandemic.
Ahead of the prime minister’s address. the Ark Centre’s spiritual leader Rabbu Gabi Kaltman said he was proud of the Ark Centre community.
He said: “Via our Pay It Forward program we raised over $50,000 in food and meal relief that has been distributed all around Melbourne. It didn’t matter If it was Kooyong, Higgins, McNamar or Goldstein the ARK Centre was there to keep people connected to community with home delivery of kosher meal packages during these turbulent and rocky 2/1-2 years.
Prime Minister, this is a credit to the incredibly generous and giving people who are sitting here in this sacred place today.
As we enter into this holy and auspicious time for all Abrahamic religions, we the Jewish people will go to the Seder meal, our Muslim brothers and sisters will sit down for their Iftar break-fast and our Christian friends will mark the most important Lords Supper. All of them include a time for contemplation, inner reflection, and a chance to consider the state of the world we live in.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was accompanied by his wife Amie.
Following the service, Scott Morrison experienced the Seder itself at the home of Josh Frydenberg’s parents, Erika and Harry.
I can see why no one was up in arms in relation to Katherine Deve’s recent twitter in relation to gay’s surrogacy.
“I have no doubt these people would imagine themselves to be part of the French Resistance in WWII – but no, they are the villagers who watched the trains go by, ignored the clouds of soot and smoke and joined the Party to get good jobs. They are complicit,’’ she said.
In another new reference to the Holocaust (above), Ms Deves suggested those that fail to fight the move towards gender fluidity are no different to those that watched the trains go past with Jews to concentration camps