Cherishing our Freedom

In a few short hours Jewish households all over the world will retell the story of our people’s journey from slavery to freedom.

In the wake of a year in which the days, weeks and months seem to have been marked by antisemitism on nearly all four corners of the earth, a terrible war and, in what seems like a dagger of disbelief through the heart, the way has been paved for Iran to rejoin the family of nations without renouncing neither their nuclear program nor their vow to destroy Israel.

There have been many Pharoahs throughout history, men with blind hate in their hearts, who have hurt and humiliated us and we have outlasted them all.

We are still here, yes, even in Europe, we continue.

And so while the comparisons to 1933 and 1938 are drawn with every headline, it’s different.

Because we have a state, we have an army and we do fight back now.  We may not agree on what’s the best path for Israel, we may or may not agree with our leaders vision for peace and security.

Pesach is not about politics, it’s about freedom.  Our freedom has been hard won, hard fought and hard kept and probably will continue to be for a long time.

The Third Reich was supposed to last a thousand years, it didn’t. Israel wasn’t supposed to last 1 year and we have gone more than 60.

We have survived, we have endured, we have flourished and most importantly we are still here. We are free.  It’s not 1938.  We’re not trapped.

That’s what I will be remembering at our Seder tonight.
Chag Pesach sameach.