Recounting the Exodus from Egypt some 3,600 years ago, will be more difficult this year than in any year since World War II and perhaps 1948.
Sitting around the Seder table with people we love and who love us, some of the songs might be harder sung this year. Some of the rituals might seem a bit indulgent. For the Jewish world is now forever changed after October 7, 2023.
Times of Israel editor, David Horovitz writes that “Our hearts will be with those we are missing…Tens of thousands of Israelis, moreover, will be marking Passover this year in an abiding state of internal exile — forced from their homes in the north, or unable to return to their homes in the south. And we have barely begun to internalize the losses of those who will never return — those who were slaughtered on October 7, and those who have lost their lives in the war that has raged since. Neither can we be indifferent to the lives lost by others caught up in the escalating conflict — those, that is, not complicit in the unprovoked invasion of our revived Jewish homeland. The people of modern Israel have rarely if ever faced loss, psychological terror and existential danger to the degree we do now.”
Indeed, the world itself has changed since October 7. For example, closer to home in Ontario, the following head-shaking items were reported merely this week.
• The Speaker of the Legislature, Ted Arnott, was excoriated because he attempted to preserve the traditions of the chamber by maintaining the ban on the wearing of political symbols there. Some people are intent on wearing a keffiyeh in the Legislative Assembly, not, of course, as a statement of fashion, but rather as a statement of support for Hamas and for the demise of Israel.
• The Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, told the Peel District School Board to reverse their decision to mark “Nakba Day of Remembrance” day in the classroom as a calendar holiday.
• The National Post reported that a York University political science faculty group recommended defining support of Israel as “anti-Palestinian racism”. Inter alia, the group wrote “Zionism is a settler colonial project and ethno-religious ideology in service of a system of Western imperialism that upholds global white supremacy.” The group also demanded that the university actively seek to isolate and help destroy the Zionist settler colonial project.
Indeed. Yes. The world has changed. Yes. The enemies of Jews are bolder. But Jews no longer shrink from confronting them or from bending the world upwards toward virtue, integrity and humanitarian purpose. The very existence of the Jewish people has changed the world toward ethical, just, humane, socially responsible monotheism. The shattering of the chains of our slavery in Egypt is the prototypical story of Freedom. It is encoded into the Jewish psyche as the essence of our identity and connective peoplehood tissue and into the Western ethos as the paradigm of Liberty and Freedom-from-slavery.
We recount the miraculous departure from ancient Egypt every day in our prayers. And on Passover, at the Seder, we will recount that departure with everyone around the table. In a real sense as well, we will recount that seminal story in a circumnavigational, geo-centric wave of shared purpose and common practice with every Jew in the world, including in Israel of course, who is also at a Seder table.
The key message embedded many different ways into the Haggadah – some overt, many nuanced – is one of hope. Each generation has understood this message according to the circumstances of their respective time: Never ever lose hope. That very message is poignantly enshrined as the four most important words of modern history: “Od loh avdah tikvateinu” We have not lost our hope. This is and has always been our rallying cry, the affirmation of a people forced to confront greater numbers and greater odds. And prevailing.
Passover begins Monday evening. It is our fervent hope that everyone who reads this update will find meaning in the holiday despite the changed post-October 7 world and in the process, be reminded too, how remarkable is the Jewish people and its constant arc upward for the sake of a better world.
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June 11, 2024 has been set for Ontario’s appeal of the 46-page decision by Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou denying the province’s request to dismiss GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding before it has actually been argued in court. If the appeal fails, the application proceeds to a hearing on its merits. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.
If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here.
For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com
Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.
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Shabbat shalom. Chag Pesach Samayach. Am Yisrael Chai.
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
April 19, 2024
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 