Tears, bondage, and green shoots

This weekend, Pesach begins, a festival steeped in symbolism, its messages woven into every ritual. For me, Pesach distils a singular truth: freedom is precious, its absence a profound evil. Slavery doesn’t just bind the body; it erases the essence of our humanity, the fundamental equality that defines us.

Yet here we are, marking a second Pesach with hostages still held in Gaza, their freedom stolen. Our hearts ache for them as they face another chag in captivity, stripped of dignity and humanity by Hamas, which wields human lives as bargaining chips.

This isn’t abstract theology, it’s the story of our emancipation crashing into today’s reality, unfolding on a map that edges modern Egypt. But Pesach is also a festival of defiant hope. It’s no coincidence that it aligns with Israel’s spring, and even on our seder tables, green shoots sit beside the symbolic representations of our tears and bondage. It’s the audacity and strength of hope made tangible. We cannot surrender that hope. Green shoots must break through soon, and we must continue to pray for a lasting end to the bloodshed that has come to characterise the past 18 months.

We end the seder with the ultimate affirmation of our nationhood and our hope: “Bshana habana beyurashalayim habnuya.” This is a prayer that I echo fiercely, as we continue to demand an immediate release of our hostages so they might stand with us next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem.

Just as we are reminded that it is our responsibility to teach each generation about the emancipation from Egypt as if we too were saved, so do we bear the same duty in regard to the Holocaust. This isn’t optional, especially now, as the nature of Holocaust memory shifts. Too soon, we’ll commemorate without survivors’ voices among us. For this reason, it is incumbent on us to ensure that we pass on the history and memory in a manner that’s no less visceral and impactful than the way it was passed on to us.

This year, the Board has taken the decision to hold the Yom Hashoah commemoration in Johannesburg in the late afternoon to allow as many people to attend as possible. We’ve also partnered with Chad Nathan, a social media force, to share content from January’s 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, which I witnessed firsthand. In doing this, the Board hopes to create a vehicle to educate and perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust. However, it is all of our responsibility to take on this duty, just as we have with Pesach for millennia. I thus encourage everyone to stand together and be counted at the Yom Hashoah ceremony wherever you are in the country.

Until then, I wish you all a happy and blessed chag. Bshana habana beyurashalayim. Bring them home!

• Listen to Charisse Zeifert on Jewish Board Talk, 101.9 ChaiFM, every Friday from 12:00 to 13:00