Monday, April 22nd, 2024

Growing up in the 1970s, at our Pesach Seder every year, my dad would hold up a matzah and recite “This is the Matzah of Hope” and he would launch into a moment when we acknowledged the Jewish refuseniks in the USSR.  We prayed for their release every year and, lo and behold, it happened. “Refuseniks” no longer exist, and we no longer include “The Matzah of Hope” in our Seder ritual.

Over the years, other prayers have found their way into our Sedarim to reflect world Jewry of the time.  We have prayed for Ethiopian Jews, for Jewish communities in lands of oppression, for Jews driven out of Middle-Eastern countries, for the LGBTQ and other marginalized Jewish groups. There is a prayer for Agunot, women who are unable to re-marry because their husbands refuse to grant them a Get, necessary for a legal Jewish divorce. An Agunah is held captive, unable to begin anew, unable to bear children with a new husband.

And now, the hostages. There are 134 hostages somewhere in Gaza. No one is sure of their location, their treatment, their condition. The world media regularly covers the war and Israel’s retaliation, but the hostages are rarely mentioned. It is our job to remember them. Set a place at your Seder for a hostage unable to join his/her family. Put a photo of one of the kidnapped near your Seder plate. Print a list of the hostages and recite them by name.

Tonight and tomorrow night we say “Avadim hayinu: We were slaves” and we celebrate our freedom. We say “Kol dich-fin. . . . May all who are hungry come and eat” and we celebrate the fact that we have homes, food, the ability to share our blessings of good fortune. We sing “V’hi she’Amda: In every generation our enemies rise up to destroy us” and we lift our wine glasses to celebrate how G-d lifts us above and saves us. Every. Single. Time.

Our collective prayers are powerful. While we are eating (and perhaps over-eating), while we are discussing the story of our People’s Exodus from Egypt (and perhaps taking a moment to share our own personal family Exodus story which led us to Canada), let us join hearts and thoughts and pray for the hostages and their families. As with the refuseniks, let us pray for the day when the Israeli hostages are free. As we sing in Adir Hu: Bimheyra b’Yamaynu b’Karov, SPEEDILY, IN OUR DAYS, SOON!

Am Yisrael Chai! Chag Sameach!