“This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. All who are hungry should come and eat, anyone who is in need should come and partake of the Pesach sacrifice.” So begins the Ha Lachma Anya, the declaration that is recited at the beginning of the storytelling section of the Passover Seder. These simple words encapsulate Passover’s biggest messages of justice, hospitality, and memory. They have been said by Jews around the world for millennia. But what do they mean this year?
I was raised in a deeply culturally Jewish home. However, my hippie parents practiced every kind of spirituality but Judaism. When I was seven years old, my family celebrated Passover for the first khbrknews. I was enthralled by the tiny bowls of salt water, as well as the strange array of bitter and sweet foods. Then my father stood up and began to tell the Passover story with the words: “All who are hungry come and eat.”
At that moment, I fell in love with Judaism. I loved the drama, sure—but also the underlying message of fairness. My parents never celebrated Passover again, but this one khbrknews was enough to form a core memory. Now, every year of my adult life, I lead my own seder. I have been proud to hold up a bumpy square of unleavened bread to symbolically welcome the hungry. With joy, I have taught my child that this is the heart of both Passover and Judaism.
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This year is different. Right now, over 1 million Palestinians are facing starvation and the U.N. has asserted that the Israeli military is intentionally causing this hunger. In the face of this horror, how can I possibly say the words that so inspired me as a child, or teach them to my own child?
“In every generation,” we read at the beginning of the Passover seder, “one is obligated to see oneself as someone who personally went out of slavery in Egypt.” But what does this mean now? After all, the story of the Exodus is thousands of years…
