Freedom
There are still 59 hostages being held in Hamas tunnels in Gaza, not all of them alive.
Around our seder tables on Saturday and Sunday nights, we will again recount the story of the Jewish people’s journey to freedom.
But we will do so knowing that we are are not all free.
There are still 59 hostages being held in Hamas tunnels in Gaza, not all of them alive.
And while some of the joyous reunions we saw earlier this year mean that former captives such as Naama Levy and Liri Albag will celebrate Pesach with their families, chairs at other family seders in Israel will remain empty, some forever.
Ariel will not be singing “Ma Nishtanah” at the Bibas family seder. Baby Kfir will not be the “fourth son” who is too young to speak.
And while Eli Sharabi will finally spend Pesach as a free man, he does so without his wife and precious daughters, who were murdered by Hamas monsters.
Yet other chairs will remain empty at seder tables as young men and women in the IDF remain on the front lines, fighting to protect the Jewish homeland.
They are all in our thoughts as we celebrate Pesach this year.
The empty chair we leave for Elijah has additionally come to symbolise all of those other empty chairs.
And as we dip our karpas into salt water to represent the tears of the Israelite slaves in Egypt, we are also reminded of the tears we and our brothers and sisters have shed on and since October 7.
The Torah tells us that enabled by a series of miracles, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and back home to the Promised Land.
Thousands of years later, what our people have built in that very same land after millennia of being scattered is equally miraculous. We end the seder by saying “Next year in Jerusalem”, harking back to those days of exile.
Perhaps a new way we could interpret that custom – one that prevails despite the Jewish people’s return to Zion almost 77 years ago – is to hope that next year, all those still captive return to their families in Israel.
Next year, may Israel’s brave young soldiers spend Pesach with their families instead of on the battlefront.
And next year, may Israel know peace.
We wish all our readers Chag Pesach Sameach.
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