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

They say that the war will end soon. They say that 80 percent of Iran's rocket launchers have been destroyed, and we want to get to 95%. Israeli officials say it may take a couple of days- the USA says maybe longer, but not far off. That's what they say. On Facebook, people who hate Israel say that Iran has destroyed us. They say that Tel Aviv is under rubble, or on fire, and Ben Gurion is experiencing a mass escape of Israelis who are fleeing the country. That's what they sa

The siren stops, and for a few seconds, no one moves. Sometimes when it starts, you walk slowly toward the shelter, gathering what you may need - your phone that won’t stop blaring, a water bottle, your baby, extra diapers, a snack for the kids, the dog. You already knew it was coming. The alert had sounded first, the one that makes it feel like the end of the world. But you’ve heard it hundreds of times now. You know the drill. Sometimes it happens in the middle of the night

Members of the Iranian women’s national soccer team cannot go home for fear of being imprisoned or k*lled by their own government. As a form of protest, Iranian women's national football team players Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Ghanbari, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh, and Mona Hamoudi, refused to sing the IRGC national anthem in the tournament opener. As members of the IRGC were part of their delegation in Australia, it seems they were forced to sing the anthem at subseque

It has been one week of sirens, shelters, and the sound of explosions over our heads. I get messages asking me how I’m doing, how I’m feeling. And honestly? For me personally, I’m trying to turn the intensity down on my emotionality. I feel a lot of things all the time. I learned a long time ago that fear will choke you. Worry will ruin your life, making it hard to breathe. Hope can sustain you till it flickers. Then it’s hard to get back. But certainty- for me that’s the goa

If you don't live in the Middle East, you don't get to judge how we deal with Iran. Until you live with their threat hanging over your family every day, you don't understand. I have felt a bomb explode at a local bus stop and felt the shockwave of the explosion rattle the windows of my home. I can still feel the blackout noise in my ears, the sudden power of the sound pounds through my chest. I have called every single one of my friends in my neighborhood, making sure their c

As I'm writing this, the sirens are wailing. I can feel the explosions above our head through the walls of our mamad (shelter). There have been a couple in a row; Jerusalem is celebrating Shushan Purim, but for us, outside of the holy city, the celebration is over. The adrenaline has waned- we got through the weekend, through the holiday, and now... Iran and Hezbollah just attacked us at the same time. It sounds like fireworks outside. Every day, I write just so I can record

Purim this year is like living in a time warp. Timelines feel like they are folding onto themselves. The past, present, and future are all merging into an experience that's hard to describe. When the sirens blare, woven in between the mitzvot of the day, sometimes I am frozen, feeling stuck and on edge. Oftentimes, I feel so certain, so hopeful, feeling like I have a vision of what is happening in the world- how it makes sense in the context of the original Purim story, the c

The willfulness of the world to deny facts, to ignore history, and pick up toxic narratives from TikTok shouldn't be shocking anymore. But when I post about Israel, and the algorithm picks up the post and exposes my writing to hundreds of thousands of antisemites- I learn all about how people from all over are thinking. Not just thinking, but what they feel comfortable articulating. Like the lowest of the low language. A morality system that I don't recognize- who is right an

When I found out that Israel's homefront command had been told to prepare for w*r with a high-level defense alert declared - at the end of Rosh Chodesh Adar- my heart did a little leap. I think it came from a place of recognition. That sense of- wait- we've heard this story before. We learn from Rabbi Akiva that when he saw the fox amidst the ruins of the Temple- he laughed. Because he recognized that if the worst prophecies were to come true, so too would the redemption foll

I want to say something about the threats of w*r iwth Iran. Several news channels are reporting right now that amid tension with Iran, the US is preparing for a prolonged conflict. Israeli officials "are saying that they are preparing for hostilities to begin within days." We've all noticed that even though the US and Iran were in talks, the US has been stocking the region with weapons, planes, and ships. Talk about mixed messaging. Listen, every couple of weeks, the same mes