A Passover Seder Haggadah supplement for the Israel-Hamas war

• Published date: 19 April 2024
• Author: STEWART WEISS
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

To that end, I am suggesting several thoughts and themes to complement the Haggadah text and add focus to our present situation. Like the Torah itself, the Haggadah is a "living document" that not only retells history but offers fresh and contemporary wisdom for our times as well. You are encouraged to keep this page in your Haggadah and refer to it on Seder night

KADESH:

We begin most major Jewish holidays by reciting Kiddush. In effect, we are "toasting" God for the miracles we experience, particularly our liberation from slavery and our exodus from Egypt. We certainly can add this week's miraculous events, whereby the massive barrage from Iran and its proxies completely failed to harm us. The enemy fired 331 projectiles at us, to no avail. Though we went to sleep dreading possible disaster, we awoke to complete salvation. No wonder that 331 is the gematriya (numerical value) of Baruch Hashem b'layla – blessed is God at night.

"Kadesh" also has a root meaning of kodesh – holy. We should remind ourselves and our children that the men and women of the IDF are the holy messengers of the Almighty; they are the means by which God fulfills the promise to protect us from harm.

We should also have special kavana/intent and awareness when we recite the Shehecheyanu blessing at the end of the Kiddush, as we thank God for allowing us to be alive to witness these cataclysmic events.

URCHATZ and RACHATZ:

Twice at the Seder, we wash our hands. This is done as a form of spiritual preparation, as water – such as immersion in a mikveh – is always a means of purification. But it also brings to mind one of the great hardships of battle – the inability of combat soldiers to wash or bathe for long periods of time while in a war zone. Many soldiers reported that this was a major challenge, and so there were portable showers brought into Gaza to afford the troops the opportunity to cleanse themselves.

KARPAS:

Passover is a spring festival, so we eat a vegetable (celery, parsley, potato, etc.) near the start of the Seder to signify the time of year the exodus took place. The current, ongoing war is the first major one we have waged in Israel during springtime (besides the 1948 War of Independence, which began on May 15, just two weeks after Passover). We dip the karpas in salt water, reminiscent of the tears we cry over what we have suffered and the necessity to engage in warfare, especially at such a beautiful time of the year as spring.

The Hebrew letters of "karpas," when...