A not-so-young single woman sent me the following note after Pesach. Her powerful message can give strength to anyone, regardless of their situation: 

“Shalom, Sivan. I had a pretty lousy holiday, but on the seventh day of Pesach I remembered an idea I once heard that on every holiday we receive a gift–we are replenished with faith and holiness. We receive this gift without even realizing it. If we participated in a Seder, drank four cups of wine, read the Haggadah and ate matzah, this gift is ours. 

“While it’s true that the more we invested in the Seder, the more obvious the gift, even if we were anxious, sad, bitter, ashamed, and envious of our married sister sitting there surrounded by her children, and the last thing we wanted was another holiday like this one God has still given us these gifts. 

“We ate matzah? Boom! We received an injection of faith for the entire year. This dose of emunah is absorbed into our bodies and souls regardless of how we felt. Consciously or unconsciously, we have been transformed by this experience. By participating in these mitzvot, we have been granted renewed energy. From now through the rest of the year, as we face struggles and challenges, sadness and despair, we can draw strength from the gifts we received on Pesach. For just as God was with our ancestors in Egypt, He hears our cries and feels our pain, and in the end, our personal redemption will come too.”

The Stories We Don’t Hear About 

Did you hear about Dina Fahimi of Netivot? I am embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of her until Pesach night. On October 7, 2023, a missile from Gaza landed a direct hit on the home of the Fahimi family. Dina lost her husband Rafael, her son-in-law Netanel who was married to her daughter Tal, and her oldest grandchild Rafael, who was shortly to have celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. Members of three generations from the same family perished on the same day.

Dina, together with her widowed daughter and her orphaned children, came to Jerusalem to celebrate Pesach at a Seder with 30 other bereaved families. We were privileged to be with them and to see how heroic people emerge from the suffering that Egypt represents. Here is what I learned from Dina:

1.  How can it be that everyone I ask has never hear what happened to the Fahimi family? Her story, like so many others, is incredibly shocking but also incredibly important. We must never lose sight of our true enemy and what it wants to do to every one of us every day — not only what it wanted to do to us on October 7.

2. We need to remind ourselves of October 7 not only because of evil, but because of good. Many are already familiar with Miriam Peretz and Iris Haim. Dina Fahimi is cut from the same cloth. Within the pain of a shattered heart, she exudes optimism and hope. How many heroes like those who were murdered on October 7 went up to heaven without our knowing them, and how many heroes like them live among us without our knowing them either?

3. Towards the end of the holiday, I asked each family if it would like to convey a message to the rest of us. Dina said she had nothing to add to the words of the Haggadah that were spoken that night since they cover everything. On Pesach night, the past connects to the present and the future:  the matzah and the maror; “You will live by your blood”; “In every generation they try to destroy us”; “This is what has stood by our fathers and us”; and finally, “Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem” when the final redemption comes. Amen.

The Future Na’ama

After celebrating Pesach, the Season of our Freedom, here is an idea about freedom from Na’ama Levi, the IDF soldier who was abducted on October 7th and returned to Israel after 477 days of Hamas captivity:

“What gave me hope while being held captive was the thought that perhaps one day I would get out of there and return home to my family. When it was hard and I was at my wits’ end, I told myself that while today’s Na’ama is at her wits’ end, I had to think about the future Na’ama. I realized that if I refuse to despair, the future Na’ama will return home so happy and will thank today’s Na’ama for her strength and resilience. I thought about my family and friends and everyone else who was waiting for me, and I knew I had to be strong for them too.”

For whatever challenge or distressing circumstances any of us might face, we learn from Na’ama to look beyond the here and now, to think of who we will be in the future, and to act in the present accordingly.

Jewish Identity Above All

Here is another story that eloquently demonstrates how Jews fulfill their freedom and stand up for their values. On Friday, the delegations from the Emet Network in Modiin and the “Lapid” Bnei Akiva Yeshiva in Modiin reached an advanced stage in the global robotics competition in Houston, Texas. The final stage of the competition was set for Shabbat.

The members of the delegation made the following announcement: We’re happy to have made it to this stage, but we are proudly withdrawing from the competition because we observe Shabbat, and that is a supreme Jewish value for us. You are invited to learn more about Shabbat at our booth. We have left materials there explaining the significance of the holy day. Shabbat Shalom to all. This message is dedicated to the welfare of our kidnapped brethren and the success of the people of Israel."