From Destruction to Rebirth

What we lost in the fire, we will find in the ashes.

– The Magnificent Seven

This theme is perhaps nowhere more prominent than in our recent history, where our people went from the gas chambers and ovens of the Holocaust to merit G-d’s redemption after 2,000 years of exile, becoming sovereign over the promised land of Israel.

As the Jewish people, we have routinely known destruction and rebirth. It is hardcoded into our Jewish DNA that when we sin, we incur (G-d forbid) His punishment, and when we find our way back to Hashem and do teshuvah then we are blessed with His merciful redemption.

Rabbi Chaim Slavaticki of Las Olas Chabad pointed out that this is even manifested in the connection between Tisha B’Av (the saddest day of the Jewish year that commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples) and Passover (which celebrates our redemption from Egyptian servitude), in that whatever day of the week the first Seder night of Passover falls on is also the same day of the week that Tisha B’Av falls on.

Moreover, on Pesach, one of the Four Questions that we ask at the Seder is why on Passover we dip twice. The first dipping is green vegetables into salt water, which symbolizes the bitterness and tears of our slavery. But the second is the dipping of bitter herbs into Haroset, a sweet mixture of nuts and wine, to represent our ultimate redemption.

But the connection of destruction and rebirth (the modern-day, so to say, “rags to riches”) goes even deeper to the Torah itself. There are two instances of dipping in the Torah. One is the dipping of Joseph’s coat of many colors into goat’s blood when his brothers sold him into slavery. This was the result of sinat chinam (baseless hatred), which is the same reason that led to the destruction of our Temple. The second dipping in the Torah is when the Israelites dipped lamb’s blood on their doorposts in Egypt so that the Angel of Death would pass over their houses and not kill their firstborns on the way to their redemption.

My father (Olav Hashalom) used to tell me that G-d is very close to us and that whatever we do, we will feel the consequences, both for the good and, unfortunately, the bad. This is why, as Jews, we must recognize that what we do, every minute of every day, makes a difference. What we do is not just between us and our fellow man, but, as my dear grandmother of blessed memory used to say, “G-d sees everything!”

Rabbi Slavaticki went on to say that on Passover, we ask “why” (i.e., in the Four Questions at the Seder), and the Hebrew word for “why” (למה) equates numerically to 75. This also is the numerical value of the Hebrew words for the question of “what will be” (מה יהיה). The ultimate answer to these questions of why bad things happen and what will transpire to us in the future is faith (בִּטָחוֹן), which also equals 75. On Pesach, we get answers to our most fundamental questions, and it all comes back to faith in the Almighty.

This Passover, let us recommit to doing good in this world and in helping to move all our people from the Diaspora to “Next Year in Jerusalem” and the speedy rebuilding of the Holy Temple. Oh G-d, please complete our final redemption and let it be!