R’ Kamenetzky sent the following Pesach message to Talmidim and parents:
As we prepare for the night of the seder and the eternal transmission of the message of faith and freedom to our children, we will all reflect upon a year that has been fraught with challenges and difficulties. Pesach is a time, not only to reflect on 210 years of slavery, but more importantly to embrace the message of Jewish salvation, hope and emunah – faith, and instill it in our children.
With war in Gaza, threats from Iran and antisemitic rallies taking place across what were once Jewish safe havens in this country and around the world, our children, (as well as ourselves) can be filled with fear.
There is much pain for the Jewish people world over. However, the seder night can be a soothing salve as an evening filled with hope and redemption. There are so many allusions in the Haggada to the suffering of Klal Yisroel in Mitzrayim, to which the seforim hakedoshim say also alludes to the suffering throughout the generations. Be it the symbolic tears of the salt water, which orphans and widows and parents of slain chayalim and terror victims are crying, the poor bread of affliction will embody the meager morsels that so many in captivity are forced to eat, and the maror which we have eaten throughout the golus, each symbol will rear its head again with the bitter reality of the pain of so many displaced and broken families.
The night of Pesach always corresponds to the night of Tisha B’Av, for it is a night in which we remember all the exiles and pray for the ultimate redemption. But there is hope! For embedded in that exile and exodus are all of the exiles and exoduses we endured and the ultimate redemption as well!
It is no wonder that as the prologue to the recounting of the story of the golus Mitzrayim we pronounce, sing, or declare, the iconic words of V’hi She’omdah, declaring that in every generation they rose to destroy us. It is at that time that our grandparents spoke about the Nazis, and great-grandparents spoke about Kishinev and other pogroms and our great-great-grandparents spoke about Chmielnicki and so on, be it an inquisition, a crusade, and the myriad attacks against our people.
This seder night our Sheb’chol Dor V’Dor Omdim Aleinu will include Sinwar (y’mach shmo) and October 7th, and it will include Hamas and their Palestinian proxies in the US whose voices resonate with the shouts that are “Omdim Aleinu L’Chaloseinu.”
But we must emphasize the hope and the promise!
Indeed, we can be open about the challenges we face, the pain and suffering that Klal Yisroel is enduring. But we must end with the eternal assurance that we will prevail and that ultimately the promise of V’hi She’omdah will be fulfilled with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Matzileinu Mi’yodom in addition to the fulfillment of Shefoch Chamos’cho!
May we merit to see the Geulah Shlaima and the presence of Eliyahu HaNavi when we open the door to greet him, wherever in the world we are.
May he send us wonderful and comforting tidings, that Moshiach is on his way.
With warmest wishes for a Chag Kosher V’Sameach,
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Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky
Rosh Yeshiva
