At Temple Sinai in west Los Angeles, Rabbi Erez Sherman opens the sanctuary doorways and walks towards row after row of seats marked with blue ribbon. Every seat represents a hostage that Hamas took through the October 7 assault on Israel.
“We determined to place names and ages in 14 rows,” says Sherman, “which is about 240 seats.”
The congregation has redacted the names of these launched. Nonetheless, greater than 130 seats stay reserved to recollect those that stay captive.
“That is our Hostage Sq.,” Sherman says, pointing to the rows and referring to a public sq. subsequent to the Tel Aviv Museum of Artwork in Israel, the place hostages' households usually collect. “These are our hostage seats.”
The seating reminds Sherman of the phrases of the Haggadah, the ritual script for telling the Passover story throughout Seder meals.
“In each era,” he says, “we’re compelled to see this story as if we ourselves got here out of Egypt. It was all the time a metaphor. This yr, it’s actuality.
Jews all over the world start celebrating Passover on Monday evening. The vacation remembers the story of the Exodus: escaping from Egypt and crossing from captivity to the promised land. This yr's remark is poignant for a lot of after October seventh.
Feeling beneath siege and eager for allies
The painful actuality of hostages is one thing that Rabbi Nicole Guzik, additionally at Temple Sinai, says is especially essential to acknowledge at Passover.
“We should inform the tales of the hostages who stay captive in Gaza,” he says. “It's a reminder that the story of Egypt continues 1000’s of years later – all of the tales which can be being held captive proper now and that received't be on a desk throughout Passover.”
The violence of October 7 and the rise in anti-Semitism that adopted have been troublesome, Guzik says, particularly for a lot of American Jews who supported African Individuals, immigrants and LGBTQ individuals through the lengthy battle for freedom and now really feel deserted.
“Jews are seen as not deserving of the identical sort of alliance or not struggling as a lot as different minorities,” he says. “I’m hopeful that the broader group and the world will hear that, as a minority, there may be deep struggling.”
The necessity to discuss throughout variations
In order that the broader group can higher perceive, this yr the American Jewish Federations see the annual interfaith Seders as alternatives for deeper dialog with neighbors.
“Resilience, power, freedom, and overcome adversity resonate throughout cultures and religions,” says Mary Kohav, director of group engagement on the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.
“This yr there can be loads of mourning. It has been a extremely tragic and traumatic time,” he says. “You understand, we hope that bringing individuals collectively to expertise this historic ritual offers some optimism about how we will transfer ahead.”
Within the weeks main as much as Passover, the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles coordinated an interfaith Seder for greater than 200 individuals. On the meal final week, earlier than the Passover correct, contributors had been requested to speak about how they understood the themes of overcome adversity and freedom in their very own traditions and the way these understandings may assist bridge the variations between individuals of religion.
Remembering the previous, imagining the longer term.
transfer ahead collectively whilst struggling continues in Israel, Gaza and the USA is a query that has no simple solutions. However asking the query provides hope to Robert Financial institution, president of the human rights group American Jewish World Service. And, as he factors out, asking questions is a part of the Passover apply.
“It's about this duality of oppression and freedom,” Financial institution says. “It’s a Jewish second to replicate on what’s damaged in our world and what we will do to restore it.”
Financial institution says the struggle between Israel and Hamas additionally makes him quote and replicate on the 2 millennia-old phrases of Rabbi Hillel: “If I’m not for myself, who can be for me? And if I’m just for myself, that I’m?”. And if not now, when?” It’s a sentiment that reminds the Financial institution of the assorted ranges of moral obligation (to self, to group, and to strangers) and the knowledge to discern when to behave on these obligations.
Historically, Seder meals finish with the phrase “Subsequent yr, in Jerusalem,” pointing towards a future during which all Jews can have fun the vacation in freedom and peace. However the American Jewish World Service publishes a Haggadah with these last phrases: “Subsequent yr, in a simply world.”
“It means we have to bear in mind the occasions when people have, actually, created change for the higher,” Financial institution says, “as a result of that makes it potential for us to do it once more.”
Remembering the previous when telling the Passover story, he says, helps individuals think about one thing that isn’t but actuality, however may at some point be.
“It means a prayer for peace for Israelis and Palestinians,” says Financial institution. “It means hope.”
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