Wartime Passover: Rabbi Stav on celebrating liberation while Hamas holds hostages

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Author: EVE YOUNG
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"The hostages are the first reason [for this somber mood], the tens of thousands of families who have not returned to their homes [because of the Israel-Hamas war] is the second reason, the lack of a clear victory in Gaza is the third reason, and perhaps the main reason is the uncertainty surrounding the question of where the country is headed in the coming years and months, with Iran and other factors," Stav explained

The hostages "exemplify, maybe more than anything else, the gloomy state we are in, celebrating a holiday of liberation with people in captivity," he said, adding that while many feel challenged by this prospect, Passover has always been a holiday of mixed feelings.

"The Passover Haggadah confronts us with mixed feelings from the very beginning. Anyone who thinks that the Haggadah is only a story of victory, does not know the Haggadah," Stav said.

We start the Seder with the splitting of matzah, the bread of poverty, saying "now we are slaves, next year free people. At the Seder we say we are still slaves, but if we are slaves, why are we celebrating?" he asked.

"The answer is that despite the fact that we experienced liberation, and that we were given the right to freedom 3,300 years ago, that doesn't mean we always use that right, and it doesn't mean that the political and social circumstances are such that we will always be free people," he said, mentioning the Prisoners of Zion and the Holocaust as examples.

Passover celebrates the right to be free

"But we will still celebrate Passover – because we have received the right to be free," he explained.

Because freedom is such an important gift, we are having such a hard time with it this year, "when we feel there are hundreds and thousands of people who are not privileged to have that freedom this year," explained Stav.

"We can't let the pain and grief damage and dampen the gift" of freedom, he said.

There are numerous ways to create space to honor the hostages at the Seder this year, said the Tzohar leader, who gave several specific examples of how to do this.

First, "when we break the matzah in two, I suggest saying: 'we break the matzah in two in order to also say that our heart is broken, just like the broken matzah. We break the matzah to say, yes, we have been liberated, but our liberation is incomplete. And so, we miss all of the hostages, and pray and want so desperately for all of them to come home.'"

Second, when we speak of the four sons, "there is a famous saying of the...