Q:
Why does the Rav think that going to a hotel for Pesach is such a big sin? A lot of gedolim do it.
A:
I don’t believe that gedolim do it.
And what is the terrible chet of going to a hotel for Pesach? I think I told you already. Pesach night, everybody knows, is one of the most sacred nights in Jewish life. The fact is, why do painters portray that scene more than any other subject? It’s because the Jewish nation understands that Pesach night is a sacred event. And to cheapen it by commercialism and community sedarim is a sacrilege. If some people go, it’s because they’re plain sick; they’re invalids. And if you find people who are not sick and they go, you have to know that they are not gedolim, they are far from gedolim. They are Americanized, and the word gedolim doesn’t apply to them at all.
TAPE # 33 (June 1973)
