Tonight, when the moon and stars shine brightly above, Jews across the world will gather as kings around wonderfully set Seder tables to tell stories of that other night, when the people of Israel hastily fled the land of Egypt.
Hundreds of thousands of oppressed slaves, degraded and scorned, discovered they were a nation and began marching the path of redemption; an arduous path that demands boundless dedication and determination. The Passover Seder is a meeting of generations, and only a people capable of passing on its heritage from generation to generation can ensure its future.
For hundreds of years Jews in Europe, Yemen, Morocco, South America and the Caucuses would sing "Next year in Jerusalem." There were years where the singing was thunderous, but for most of the time, the Diaspora was silent. During the songs they would shut their eyes and imagine; after all it was but a distant, incomprehensible dream, and there was nothing obligatory.
We have been privileged, against all odds, to see this dream come true. If you had told my mother just 74 years ago, standing on the ramp in Auschwitz, that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren would ask her, in Israel, "What's different about this night?" she would have been sure the Messiah had arrived.
If you had shown my late father, after the death march from Dachau finally ended, that the day would come – in the not-so-distant future – when the Jews would have a mighty army with tanks, missiles and planes, and that Jews would be able to gather for the Seder at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, he would have been sure that the Prophet Micah's foretelling had come to fruition: "As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders."
The Passover Seder this year is particularly meaningful. We will soon celebrate 70 years of Israel's independence. There is a strong link between "let my people go" on the eve of the exodus from Egypt and Independence Day. Only a people with a consciousness of liberty embedded deeply in its soul could have survived all the suffering and agony that was our fate as Jews. Refusing to break and give up, willing to sacrifice our lives and continue upward toward our return to Zion and the redemption of the land of Israel.
Tonight I will gather for the Seder with disabled IDF veterans at Beit Kay in Nahariya. Wounded in Israel's wars, they paid the price of liberty with their bodies. We also remember our fallen comrades and our brothers and sisters whose beautiful lives were cut short by acts of terror. We will burn away the bitterness and find all that is good and plentiful, that we have been privileged to be the last generation in exile and the first in salvation. We will thank the lord that we are living in our historic homeland, strong, victorious and admired by many countries worldwide. Have a truly happy holiday.
