Passover After October 7

April 2024

By Rabbi Chanoch Oppenheim, Charlotte Torah Center

This is the first Passover since October 7. Even if a miracle happens and by the time of publication, Hamas has been destroyed, Hezbollah has been neutralized, and people in Israel can go back to their homes and lives, we Jews are still dealing with PTSD. We live in a country that was a safe haven for our parents, grandparents, or great grandparents and we thought it was a safe place for us. Educational institutions we once revered are now hostile environments for our children and the heads of those institutions lack the moral clarity to publicly condemn rape, torture, and murder. Many people have noticed a palpable change in their relationships with people at work and even with friends and colleagues of many years. Whether you’re nine or ninety, in your lifetime you have never felt as self-conscious about being Jewish as we’ve felt in the last few months. The theme of Passover is freedom; can we honestly sit at the seder table this year and rejoice as free people when we have such an overwhelming existential threat looming over us? Yes! Absolutely!

This is one of the most exciting times to be a Jew. Since October 7, we’ve seen more achdut (unity) among Jews than any of us can remember. Decades of barriers — Ashkenazi, Sephardi, religious, non-religious, anti-religious, politically on the left, politically on the right — all seemed to vanish, much to the chagrin of our enemies. Israel had so much internal strife and there’s nothing better than attacking a divided country. But Jews are different. We are one family, albeit a bit dysfunctional at times, and families unite and fight for one another.

Many Jews are asking for the first times in their lives what it means to be a Jew. They are questioning, engaging, and open to conversations new to them. Why? They know that a peaceful group who for centuries have been known to be kind, fair, and loyal citizens are not only hated; it's a hatred not carried out on other people. Our enemies aren't content to persecute or enslave us, they want to murder us and it doesn't matter if we're communists or capitalists, they want us dead. We must possess something incredibly effective and powerful if they hate us for no good reason and it's causing Jews from all walks of life to reexamine what Judaism represents and, in some cases, they want to represent it and become leaders. Britain's former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote a brilliant essay called "Why am I a Jew" in which he says, "I am proud to be part of an age in which my people, ravaged by the worst crime ever to be committed against a people, responded by reviving a land, recovering their sovereignty rescuing threatened Jews throughout the world, rebuilding Jerusalem, and providing themselves to be as courageous in the pursuit of peace as in defending themselves in war."

We too are proud to live at a time when tragedy has led to a triumph of love and concern for one another. When adversity has turned to advantage and how pain has led to unprecedented support to those suffering. And, most importantly, how, regardless of any differences, we all feel as one. This year at the Seder we will feel more connected to our Jewish brothers and sisters than ever before.

When our enemy Balaam tried to curse the Jewish people (Numbers 22), the Almighty intervened and Balaam ended up blessing them. Our enemies say, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” They don’t realize they are actually uttering a beautiful statement of truth about an eternal people. This year, when bombs facing Israel are waiting to be launched, when Jews the world over are on high security alert, when many Jewish families in Israel have been displaced, this year, Jews from river to sea will sit at their Seder tables and know they are free. They know that just as we have survived until now against all odds, we will continue to survive. Just as the Shabbos and Chanukah candles still burn in Jewish homes, so too they will burn there in the future. Just as the flimsy shack we call a Sukkah hasn’t blown away or been destroyed by the Cossacks or Communists, our trusty Sukkah will stand in the future and so too with the rest of Jewish practices.

The Haggadah tells us that in every generation they have attempted to destroy us, but G-d has saved us from their hands. From Tolstoy to Twain, the world’s great minds have been baffled by our existence. Although there’s no logical explanation, we know we will still be here next year and always. We might be in pain, but we’re strong, confident, and proud to be part of such an incredible and eternal nation. Jews know it, live it and breathe it — and this year at the seder we will make sure to talk about it. Keep that in mind and look forward to the best Seder ever.