Shelo Echad Bilvad – Jewish Unity above all

“For not only one has risen up against us to annihilate us, but in every generation they rise up against us to annihilate us” (Passover Haggadah)

Asks Likutei Yehuda in the name of the Sfat Emet: why the language, ‘shelo echad bilvad’, i.e. ‘not only one’? Why not say that ‘many’ have risen against us? Or why not leave out the first clause altogether and simply say ‘in every generation they rise up against us to annihilate us’?

The answer: because ‘shelo echad bilvad’ refers not to them but to us – it’s true meaning: ‘when we are not united as one’, they rise up to annihilate us.

Wake up, you short-sighted Israeli politicians! Your arguments about judicial reform, and all the rest of your self-serving nonsense is less than meaningless if, G-d forbid, G-d forbid, we were to no longer exist as a sovereign people in our own Land.

About the Author

Adam Gross, an Oxford-educated strategist, has over 20 years' experience solving complex problems in the international arena for United Nations agencies, international financial institutions, private sector, NGOs and social enterprises across Europe, Africa and Asia. Adam made aliyah with his family in 2019 to live in northern Israel.