The concept of memory plays a large part in the celebration of Passover. We are asked to remember our bondage in Egypt, and to think of ourselves as if we too were just freed from slavery. At the end of the Seder, we declare “Next year in Jerusalem!” so as to remember our fondest wish that we all reunite in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people.
Treppenwitz, a well established and respected JBlogger pulled a good one on all of us in the Jewish blogging community. He wrote an important post where every single word of the first five paragraphs linked to another JBlog. When your blog is linked to from another blog, a trackback alerts you to that linkage. Ever vigilant of who is writing about us, many of us rushed off to Treppenwitz’s post to see what the he had written.
Treppenwitz got all our attention in order to remind us of something.
This year as we prepare for the Passover seder we must keep in mind that while any one of us is held captive by our enemies, not one of us is truly free… Throughout the year, many synagogues add a prayer for the safe return of our captured soldiers to their Shabbat service. But like our mental lapses at the seder, we frequently find it difficult to really internalize the plight of captives while surrounded by the warm embrace of friends and neighbors. For those not familiar with it, it goes something like this:
“May the One Who blessed our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon, bless the kidnapped and captive soldiers, including among them Gilad ben (the son of) Aviva Shalit; Ohed ben Malka Goldwasser; Eldad ben Tova Regev; Guy ben Rina Hever, Ron ben Batya Arad; Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sarah Katz; Tzvi ben Penina Feldman; and Zecharia Shlomo ben Miriam Baumel. May the Holy One, Blessed be He, watch them and save them from all trouble and oppression and from all evil and injury.
May He be filled with mercy for them, to cause them to recover and to heal them, to strengthen them and to invigorate them, and to bring them speedily to freedom, to return to the embrace of their families. May they merit long lives and years of much strength and peace. In the merit of our forefathers, may the descendants be saved and fulfill through them the verse, ‘Release my soul from imprisonment to praise Your Name’ (Psalms 142:8), swiftly and soon, and let us all say Amen.”
So this Passover… don’t forget our boys who are STILL in captivity. Good job Trepp, glad to pass on the message. Happy Passover y’all.
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Just dropping in from Treppenwitz’s link. May your Pesach be filled with marvel at the miracle that is Israel.