Rabbi Gamliel is quoted in the Passover Haggadah, saying, “In every generation, a person must regard himself as though he had personally gone out from Egypt.”
By Rachel Avraham
Rabbi Gamliel is quoted in the Passover Haggadah, saying, “In every generation, a person must regard himself as though he had personally gone out from Egypt, as it is said: ‘And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, “It is because of what the Lord did for me that I went out of Egypt.”‘ Therefore, it is our duty to thank, praise, laud, glorify, exalt, honor, bless, extol him who performed all these miracles for our ancestors and us: He who brought forth from bondage to freedom, from sorrow into joy, from mourning into festivity and from sorrow into great light.”
Just as every generation of Jews should regard themselves as if they personally left Egypt, each generation should also note that there are various regimes and terror organizations in our world that also carry on the legacy of pharaoh. One of them is the Hamas terror group, who is responsible for the massacre, rape and mutilation of over 1,200 Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023 and then subsequently kidnapped over 250 more Israelis, who were raped, sexually assaulted, tortured and in some cases murdered in cold blood in captivity.
Just as pharaoh massacred the newborn Jewish baby boys in his kingdom for no other reason than the fact they were Jewish, Hamas also massacred innocent Jewish people, not caring if they were babies or small children, just because they were Jewish and for no other reason. Just as pharaoh used to beat, torture and whip Jewish slaves into submission, Hamas beats, rapes, sexually abuses, and tortures the Israeli hostages into submission. In fact, as we speak, far too many Israeli hostages remain in bondage, in a strip of land that was once controlled by Egypt.
The Arabic word for Hamas is Harakah Al Muqawamah Al Islamiyyah, which means the Islamic Resistance Movement. It can also mean zealot, strength or bravery in Arabic. However, in the Torah, Hamas is the Hebrew word for robbery. It can also translate into English as violence, lawlessness, wickedness, cruelty, outrage, and immorality. Indeed, while gnuva in Hebrew is someone who steals for the sake of obtaining property, Hamas refers to someone who steals for the sake of doing violence.
It appears that the Hebrew translation of the word Hamas better describes the terror group, as raping women, slaughtering babies and mutilating, torturing and massacring innocent civilians is not a sign of strength or bravery. If anything, it is a sign of cowardice. However, Hamas did demonstrate that they are able to kidnap Israelis and hold them hostage in Gaza, which is a form of thievery for the sake of violence. They are literally stealing the lives of the Israeli hostages, of which 59 are believed to still be in Hamas custody today, of which 24 are believed to be alive, living under a form of bondage.
While Pharoah hoped to break the Jewish people with hard labor, Hamas seeks to break the Jewish people by raping, mutilating and massacring innocent Israelis on October 7, while holding other ones hostage. While the remaining hostages are not at risk of needing to make heavy bricks and perform construction projects for their Hamas masters, the male hostages are still subject to beatings, similar to what the Egyptian taskmasters did to the Jewish slaves. The female hostages that were taken from Kibbutz Nahal Oz were forced to clean and take care of their captors children, while literally starving themselves, which is also a form of bondage.
Thousands of years ago, Moses approached Pharoah and demanded that he “let my people go.” This Passover, Jews around the world also tell Hamas: “let my people go.” In fact, many people felt that the Seder table was not complete this year without the hostages being able to return home to their families. The thought of the hostages celebrating Passover in bondage, without Seders, without Haggadahs, and without matzoh, breaks the human heart.
Soviet dissident Nathan Sharansky’s depiction of celebrating Passover in solidarity confinement in a Soviet Gulag is reminiscent of how the Israeli hostages celebrated Passover: “When I celebrated the Seder in solitary confinement, I needed to decide what would be matzah, what would be maror and what would be wine, when all I had in solitary were three slices of bread, three cups of warm water and a bit of salt. I decided that the maror was salt, the wine was warm water, and the matzah was dry bread.” He noted that the following words from the Haggadah which he recited from memory without having an actual Haggadah gave him hope: “This year we are slaves, next year free men; this year we are here, and next year in Jerusalem.”
Right before the Passover holiday, Agam Berger, a former hostage, recounted to the Times of Israel how she celebrated Passover in Hamas captivity last year: “Held in a small room with no natural light, we did what we could to set the holiday mood,” Agam wrote, describing how the pair made decorations from “scraps of paper,” and how Liri Albag had surprised her with a makeshift Haggadah.
“On Passover, we heard that people had set us a table in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. Liri listened to her mother’s voice on the airwaves. We cried, then sat down to eat our own ‘bread of affliction.’ Our corn flour pitas united us with them.” This Passover, we demand that the 59 remaining hostages be freed from Hamas captivity and spend next year in Jerusalem, united with their families, so that their suffering that they endure in bondage can come to an end.
Photo from Jeff Dahl: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaoh#/media/File:Pharaoh.svg
