The Az Nashir Haggadah:
On the Path to Redemption
(Matan Edition)

It's been happening slowly through the years, but now, with the loss of Dr. Edith Eger, it feels like we are on the precipice of a new era. A time when the survivors who lived through the atrocities of the Holocaust will no longer be among us in the land of the living. Their first-hand testimony has sometimes been lost to history. Sometimes it was meticulously recorded. Other times, it was burned into the memories and DNA of their loved ones. But with the loss of this generat

The siren rolls in like an avalanche. The wailing fills the streets, so loud it buzzes inside my ears. I can’t see my neighbors, but I know, wherever they are, they are listening too. Past my city, the entire country stands still. There is no one who doesn’t hear this cry. The sound builds quickly and I feel my knees weaken and my spine straighten as I stand in respect. It’s too much. Too many faces in my mind. Too many names on my lips. I don’t know if I breathe through the

The national narrative we have about sacrifice for the sake of our land barely scratches the surface of the grief that lives here, too. The general population weaves in between the soldiers' names released for publication, the terror attacks, and their victims, citizens who have been killed in our existential wars. We are all just a few degrees away from someone: a friend's brother-in-law, someone your husband used to daven with in shul, a kid you watched grow up. Someone you

Here is what people don't understand about the Jewish connection to the land of Israel: When we read our ancient, unchanging texts, they take place in this land. The cities carry many of the same names, and the geography plays a role in the stories of our people. When we think about our matriarchs and patriarchs, we can perfectly envision their environments, because it's the same as our own. The same rolling hills with craggy rocks and vineyards. Sheep with their shepherds on

Here is a message to antisemites who blame Israel for the world's evils on Yom Hashoah: You are ignoring the lessons of the Holocaust. You are ignoring the dangers of extremism, polarization, and dehumanization. The fact that rhetoric can turn into violence, which can lead to genocide. That monsters don't have to have fangs and claws, but can appear to be liberal, cultured people. That you can study literature, science, and psychology, and still carry disgust, abhorrence, and

We’re facing Yom Hashoah as we are waiting for the war to restart, here in Israel. The sun is beginning to set and we’re driving on the highway on the way home. We’re being escorted by flags lining the road, in a display of national pride. Tis the season but it feels strange this year. The thing is for many of us, it’s so hard to have the bandwidth this year to bring our attention to the pain and suffering of the past. Because it hasn’t stayed in the past. We are full swing i

This morning reframed everything for me. Like many people, I woke up with what I can only describe as a “war hangover” - feeling slow, heavy, a little nauseated from the emotional whiplash of it all. I’m tired of the politicking. The push and pull. That constant feeling of standing at the edge of a cliff - and then the lurch of the sudden, disorienting stop. And then comes the eerie quiet. The kind where you can suddenly hear your own inner world again. And it’s… a mess. But

The house is heavy with gratitude and heartbreak. There are people lining up in the streets of our town, with Israeli flags and shock, to say goodbye to a son of our neighborhood who was killed in Lebanon. A young man, whose family has known too much loss, who had a whole future ahead of him. I ask for no more sacrifices as I roll matza balls to boil, a recipe I made this morning with my mother, just like my grandmother did. The counters are groaning with freshly prepared foo

There is a lot of grief and frustration (and even rage) about not being able to access our holy places here in Israel right now. After Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was blocked from praying at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday for security reasons, the internet burned up with anger at the Israeli government. (They now made a deal with the government that they can worship there now.) So much of the blame ignored the fact that the Old City has been hit with mis

The city shook this morning. We were in the second siren of four so far today, (there have been more hatraaot, warnings, than I recall) and the interceptor is right over our heads. For the first time since this war started, it sounds so close that my body instinctively braces for impact. It feels like it is going to hit us. The Iron Dom does its job. But there are many pieces of the missile that fracture and land in different parts of my city. I won’t tell you where. The Iran