There is a Bright Future

Two months after his parents and two sisters were brutally murdered in their home by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Ariel Zohar celebrated his bar mitzvah.

The Tefillin that he placed around his arm and on his head were given to him by his Holocaust-survivor grandfather, who got it from his late father. Despite the charred home, the Tefillin stayed intact and was recovered by first responders.

One of the special guests at the Bar Mitzvah was former Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau. Lau, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Israel with his older brother Naftali after their entire family was murdered by the Nazis, told Ariel: “When my bar mitzvah came around, my father had also been murdered, and my mother had been murdered, and I, like you, was already without parents. And yet, I had a good life and achieved much. And you too will achieve, and you too will have a good life, because you see how many good people love you.”

After suffering the worst attack on our people since the Holocaust, one would think that the Jewish people, especially those living in Israel, would become traumatized and fearful for their lives. However, despite the obvious pain and challenges we continue to endure, the Jewish people remain confident and optimistic and look forward to building a brighter future.

While so many powerful nations have come and gone, the Jewish people continue to thrive despite the horrific persecutions we have endured throughout history. What is the secret to our resilience?

The answer was on full display at Ariel Zohar's Bar Mitzvah. Despite losing so much of his beloved family and all that was dear to him, his cherished Tefillin enables him to strengthen his faith, remain connected to his past and grow up to be a proud, positive and educated young Jewish adult. The Tefillin is an enduring symbol of faith and connection which bonds us with our Creator and empowers us not to become a victim of circumstance but rather choose to lead a productive and meaningful life.

As we recited the Haggadah during the night of the Seder: “And this (G-d's blessings and the Torah) is what kept our fathers and what keeps us surviving. For, not only one arose and tried to destroy us, rather in every generation they try to destroy us, and G-d saves us from their hands.”

While it is important to learn from our past experiences and challenges, we must not let it hold us back from living in the present and forging ahead. The first step to growth is discovering and understanding our heritage and where we have come from. At the same time, we must live in the present while building ahead for the future.

Over the past two thousand years, the Jewish people have learned not only to survive but also thrive in a foreign environment which was often hostile to Jewish people and observance. While we have specific times of the year when we commemorate and learn from tragic events of the past, we have not allowed it to define our Judaism. Rather we transform our challenges into opportunities for growth to build a bright and strong future.

The festival of Passover, which gives us the inspiration and motivation to experience both our personal and universal freedoms, incorporates these two phases as well. During the Seder, which we conduct at the start of the festival, we recount the exodus from Egypt and internalize the lessons of slavery and freedom for our modern lives. On the final (seventh and eighth) days of Passover, we focus on the present and anticipate the future redemption.

The seventh day commemorates the events that happened shortly after the exodus from Egypt when the Jewish people found themselves trapped. They were surrounded by the sea of reeds in front of them and the fast approaching Egyptians from behind them who intended on bringing them back to Egypt as slaves.

The exodus from Egypt was not yet complete until the Jewish people experienced the splitting of the sea and fully detached themselves from their past slavery. As long as there was a remote option to return to Egypt, complete freedom was not yet guaranteed.

The same is true in our own lives. At times, we may feel moments of empowerment, inspiration or gratification for overcoming a challenge. But if we do not fully seize the opportunity and forge ahead, we run the risk of returning to our old negative habits, addictions or limitations. The key to personal freedom is to learn from our past while living in the present and building for the future.

Since Oct 7, the Jewish people have experienced a tremendous revival and reawakening to connect more with our Jewish faith and identity. To ensure this inspiration does not fade with the passage of time, we must take practical small steps to increase in performing Mitzvot and studying Torah and encourage our children to do the same. We do not allow the events of Oct 7 to define our Jewish identity but rather we transform the pain in to a springboard to build a more vibrant, educated and brighter Jewish future.

Along with our personal liberation we also strive for universal redemption and liberty to the world at large. That is why the eighth and final day of Passover is traditionally associated with our hopes for the coming of Moshiach and redemption to the world. For this reason, the Haftorah read on that day contains many prophecies which refer to the era of the redemption. Among the best-known of these: “The wolf will dwell with the lamb; the leopard will lie down with a young goat”, which Maimonides describes as a metaphor that all nations of the world will live together in harmony during that era.

The Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760) remarked that on the last day of Passover, the rays of the Messianic Redemption are already shining bright. He instituted that a special meal be held during the waning hours of the final day of Passover. It is traditionally called: “Moshiach's Seudah (meal)”. The meal consists of eating Matzah and drinking four cups of wine accompanied by exchanging words of Torah inspiration along with song and dance, mirroring the Seders held on the first nights of the holiday.

May we celebrate the meal of Moshiach together this year in Jerusalem with the coming of Redemption!