Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

This night WILL be unlike other nights.

On Wed. April 8, we will celebrate the first Passover Seder and re-tell the story of the Jewish people's exodus out of Egypt. Given the COVID-19 pandemic this year, we are faced with an acute challenge to the freedoms we usually enjoy. While our seders may be limited to those physically residing in our households (and perhaps remote feeds for some), the crisis provides the opportunity to make a meaningful connection to the themes of the holiday and our ancestors and their quest for freedom.

APN is pleased to once again provide a supplemental reading for Passover, this time by Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels of Santa Monica, CA.

The new reading centers around the directive that "In every generation, a person is required to see him/herself as if s/he came out from Egypt." We thank Rabbi Neil, who is an indefatigable champion of peace and justice (pictured at a protest against the "Muslim Ban").

Our previous readings are also available to share and include in your seder.

APN wishes you and your family health and strength for Passover and moving forward.

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This year we are slaves: What can these words mean?

We are slaves...

Because yesterday our people were in slavery, and memory makes yesterday real for us.

We are slaves because today there are still people in chains, around the world, and no one can be truly free while others are in chains.

We are slaves...

Because freedom means more than broken chains.

Where there is poverty and hunger and homelessness, there is no freedom;

Where there is prejudice and bigotry and discrimination, there is no freedom; Where there is violence and torture and terrorism and war, there is no freedom.

And where there are pandemics, there is no freedom.

And where each of us is less than he or she might be, we are not free, not yet.

And who, this year, can be deaf to the continuing oppression of the downtrodden, who can be blind to the burdens and the rigors of the most vulnerable in our own midst?

Who can be indifferent to the victims of violence — our brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and throughout Israel, the Palestinians themselves, our neighbors — children, women — here at home?

Who can ignore the silenced and the intimidated in Syria and in so many other places, the murdered and the plundered and the starved in Yemen, the dying and suffering now even in our own country and worldwide?

So long as such things persist, who among us can say that he or she is free?

Therefore, when we say that this year we are slaves, but that next year we shall be free, we make a pledge.

It is the same pledge we made last year, and the year before that, and we shall make it next year, too, for the road to freedom is not an easy road and we will not soon reach its end, our goal.

Yet it is the road we have chosen, and the choice itself is a foretaste of freedom and it is up to us to make it happen.

Together, we will in health and triumph.

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B'CHOL DOR VA'DOR

...בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ, כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרָֽיִם

B’chol dor va’dor chayav adam lirot et atzmo k’iluhu yatza miMitzrayim.

 “In every generation a person is required to see him/herself as if s/he came out from Egypt.” (Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 116b)

This sentence is often read perfunctorily at our Pesach Seder. It should never be – it should be cherished, inscribed on our doorposts and on our gates along with our mezuzot. These words are, in truth, the very core of the meaning and the message of Passover. More than that, they are the essence of the Jewish purpose in the world. They provide the lens through which we see our role in society as the “slavery-to-freedom” people. We are the people who know, in the marrow of our bones and in our collective consciousness what it means to be enslaved – and what it means to be free. It is not possible for us, as Jews, to ignore this legacy. Our only choice is to employ it as our Jewish responsibility to ensure that all people are free from the complete spectrum of slaveries:

• physical slavery

• sexual slavery

• gender-role slavery

• the slavery of homelessness and poverty

• the slavery of a poor education

• the slavery of lack of access to clean water

• the slavery of lack of access to decent healthcare

• the slavery of unjust incarceration

• the slavery of racial and ethnic bigotry

• the slavery of war

• the slavery of being designated “illegal”

There are other messages in these words as well that I learned from my teacher, Cantor William Sharlin, who commented on how the phrases of the text are laid out in a musical setting by David Alster-Yardeini:

• In every generation a person must see him/herself…

  • A call for self-examination that leads to the creation of values and purpose

• …To see him/herself as if…

  • To fully perceive the possibilities and potentials of being human

• …As if s/he came forth from Egypt.

  • To embrace the Egypt experience as our own experience and as a metaphor for our value-laden mandate to ensure that no one is designated as a stranger and oppressed.

Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels

Tuesday, April 7, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Webinar on settlements and occupation in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, featuring experts on the ground in Israel:

• Lior Amichai, Executive Director of Yesh Din
• Brian Reeves, Peace Now Director of External Relations

Moderated by

• Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace 

Discussion will include the very different Israeli policies vis-a-vis movement and travel of Palestinians and West Bank settlers, Israeli government moves to advance settlement projects while the world’s focus is on the health crisis, and continued settler violence against Palestinians. 

REGISTER HERE

Co-Sponsored by Americans for Peace Now and Foundation for Middle East Peace