Shalom All,

In about ten days, we will be celebrating Pessach. The holiday of our

freedom, of our becoming a nation. Here in Israel, these days are filled

with spring, cleaning, cooking, preparing. A 3500-year-old holiday, that our

people have been celebrating year after year, throughout hardship and

prosperity. I always feel moved by our holidays, knowing that I m another

ring in a long chain of tradition. A tradition that, despite alterations of

fashion and time, has basically remained the same. Some 3000, and 2000, and

1000 years ago, there was always a Jewish woman who prepared the Seder for

her family, taking care of all the details so she could set a beautiful

table for the holiday, always complaining that it is a lot of hard work,

most likely receiving the help of her family, always grateful at the end

that it will be a whole year before she needs to do it again...and

nevertheless, regardless of the work, complain and fatigue, never once

thinking to defy the tradition. Knowing that the continuity of our story and

showing our children how to continue it is the only way to ensure that it

doesn't die. "Vehigadeta lebincha" - and thou shall tell thy son - the

greatest Mitzvah of the Haggada.

I couldn't help but think about this mitzvah when the IDF caught yet another

12 year old Palestinian child bomb only yesterday. I remembered something I

learned many years ago: why did Pharoa let the People of Israel go only

after all the first-born of the Egyptians were killed? Why did he not let

them go much sooner, why did he wait for this horrific tragedy to occur? One

of the answers that our sages give is the following: all the other

catastrophes, plague, lice, bloody water - they can all be overcome. They

are catastrophes, but life can indeed go on in spite of them; but when your

children are dying, the future itself is dying. That, no people can

overcome.

What are these People telling their children? What is their message? No

desperation, no occupation and no anger can justify the message they are

sending: that the best future for their own children is to murder and die.

In ten days, we will be telling our children our story. And as always, we

will end it with a prayer for peace and prosperity, next year, in Jerusalem.

It is the teaching, the tradition and the prayer that have kept us for the

past 3500 years. Nothing can give a more solid, proof-based promise for our

future than that.

Shabbat Shalom,

Liat