Many of us - including myself - sat around this year's Passover Seder with empty chairs and prayers for our hostages held in captivity in Gaza. The past six months have been exceedingly difficult, even traumatic, for the Jewish people. Last October 7, Hamas terrorists broke through the Gaza border fence and murdered 1,200 Israelis; the greatest one-day killing of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust.
Like every year, at the Passover Seder, we enjoyed transporting ourselves back in time 3,300 years into the state of powerlessness and oppression our people endured as slaves in Egypt.
When we read the Haggadah, we were asked to feel as though it is us, not our distant ancestors, feeling the taskmasters’ lashes tearing into our backs; that it is our tears, not theirs, that were mixed with the mortar; and our cries for deliverance, not theirs, that God heard and mercifully helped make possible our escape from Egypt.
Through this psychological exercise in empathy, we experienced a taste of what it was like for many generations of Jews whose fate it was to live in thrall to oppressors; not only during the 210 years we were slaves in Egypt, but throughout the two millennia of our dispersion and exile from our Land after the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Furthermore, we enjoined to reacquaint ourselves with the horrors our people faced through bitter centuries of exile; the Crusades, Inquisition, and endless cycles of pogroms, leading inexorably to the Holocaust.
And yet if we can evince the deep empathy needed to feel viscerally the multiple indignities and humiliations our people endured for so long, we will realize anew how incredibly fortunate we are to be alive as Jews in 2024.
Simply put – 2024 is not like any other period in Jewish history. Recent events leading up to Passover remind us of that stark contrast.
On April 13 – Israel emerged virtually unscathed from an unprecedented direct missile attack by Iran. The remarkable display of Israel's multilayered air defense system and the historic coalition of Israeli, American, British, French, Jordanian and Saudi forces, intercepted 99% of Iranian missiles and attack drones.
A few days later, Israel’s retaliatory strike unveiled a high-tech missile, capable of evading Iran’s radar and defense system. Israel sent a calibrated message to the Islamic Republic: Think twice before launching another attack on the Jewish State!
Then, just several days later, Congress approved the largest U.S. Security and package in Israel’s history, President Biden’s $14.3 billion emerging funding request for Israel. It is a clear signal that the United States stands behind Israel as it continues to expunge Hamas terrorists from Gaza. All these extraordinary developments, just in the last ten days!
On Passover, memory teaches us empathy, not just to recall our suffering, but also to develop an empathetic imagination. If we are successful in transporting ourselves back thousands of years ago to two hundred and ten years of bondage and slavery, to our ancestors’ saga of bitterness and tears, to subsequent millennia of unspeakable anguish and sorrow, challenges and tragedies, trauma and devastation, hopelessness and helplessness, then paradoxically, this exhortation of empathy and remembrance of slavery should enable us to acknowledge our contrasting blessings and gratitude this Passover.
On October 7, Hamas made the fateful error thinking they were targeting helpless and defenseless Jews. In 2024, we are no longer helpless, we are no longer defenseless.
Despite the ongoing war with Hamas, the threats from Hezbollah and Iran and the suffering and captivity of more than a hundred hostages in Gaza, recent events leading up to Passover this year remind us that once again Israel is on a march, a self-willed march to restore the strength and honor and dignity of the Jewish people.
Let us rejoice in the State of Israel and marvel at its achievements. Passover 2024 gives us cause for optimism.
Rabbi Marc Schneier is founding senior rabbi of the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, NY, and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding