March 25, 2025
Sondra Oster Baras
Every Sunday morning I teach Bible in a Women’s Bible School that I founded just after retiring as Director of CFOIC Heartland. It is one of the highlights of my week to teach women from my community the brilliant words of our precious Bible. I am now teaching Samuel.
This morning, a woman came up to me and thanked me for the lessons. She said it is just amazing that everything we are learning in Samuel, took place right here where we live, in the Land of Israel. And we can recognize most of the places. As we chatted, we both acknowledged as well that so many of the challenges that the leaders and the people of Israel faced in the time of Samuel, Saul and David, are so similar to the challenges we face today in the modern State of Israel.
In just a few weeks, we will be celebrating Passover, a very special holiday in the Jewish tradition. When God took us out of Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, He commanded us to remember the miracle of the Exodus and to transmit it to our children and to future generations ever after: “Unleavened bread (matzah) shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ “ (Exodus 13:7-8)
The Passover Seder centers around the retelling of the Passover story from many perspectives. And we don’t just tell the story — we do things, eat special foods, all to remind us of the Exodus experience and the enslavement in Egypt that preceded it. And as the Scripture notes, we eat the matzah so that we can transmit this memory to our children, the memory of slavery as well as of the miracles of the Exodus.
The actual act of transmitting a memory for thousands of years is unique to the Bible. Usually you can only transmit a memory that you actually experience. And yet, on Passover, we transmit a memory that was personally experienced thousands of years ago by our ancestors. Our identification with that experience and with those miracles are so powerful that it has essentially become the personal memory of each and every Jew throughout the generations.
A powerful moment during the Seder is the recitation of the following: “In each and every generation we must view ourselves as if we personally left Egypt.” Again, a collective memory of thousands of years becomes personal.
I believe that this memory has helped us throughout the generations to face the challenges that are constantly coming our way. For centuries, Jews have suffered anti-Semitism in the countries of their exile, all over the world. Knowing that our experience reflects that of our ancestors in Egypt gave us hope. We knew that no matter how hard it got, God would rescue us and would ensure that our people would never disappear.
Am Yisrael Chai — The Nation of Israel Lives—is not just a slogan. It is a deeply held belief that contains within it an abiding faith in God’s promises to us.
Just a little over a week ago, we celebrated Purim. In the Book of Esther, Mordecai refuses to bow down to the wicked Haman. Many have questioned the wisdom of this act of defiance. After all, no one contended that Haman was a deity. Bowing down to him was just a way of giving respect to a powerful leader, Perhaps Mordecai understood already what is revealed afterwards — that Haman was a vile anti-Semite, bent on destroying the Jews. And Mordecai wanted to set the tone — we will not bow down to the anti-Semites of this world. We will not accommodate them. We will carry our heads high and proudly declare our unique identity.
Many wonder how the Israeli public manages to stay sane and function during so many periods of stress, terrorism and serious security threats. Of course, no one welcomes these dangers, but unfortunately, they have become part of our lives. Deep inside every Israeli is the knowledge that God will never let us disappear, that somehow, we will come through this as a people.
The stories that have emerged from the hostages who were liberated after more than a year in Gaza, are as amazing as they are uplifting. Despite the terrible suffering, outright torture and constant fear for their personal survival, so many of them turned to God, praying, fasting (even when they had almost no food), celebrating Shabbat, even if only symbolically. These amazing people were following Mordecai’s lead — they refused to bow down to Haman.
Today I taught I Samuel Chapter 31 — where Saul dies on the battlefield. We discussed his decision to fall on his own sword once it became clear that there was no way that he could survive the day and that the Philistines were near. We understood his motivation to kill himself rather than be killed by the Philistines as a desire to retain his honor, for the sake of Israel. He went into battle fully conscious that he would die that same day. Samuel had given him that prophetic knowledge. But he did not run away. He went forward, his head held high, determined to fight the Philistines and preserve Israel’s honor. We read a commentary from the 12th century that drew on Saul’s example to help those Jews suffering from the Crusades in Europe, to be brave and hold on to their faith, their identity.
This, then, is our heritage. When we tell the story of the Exodus, we remember centuries of persecution on the one hand, but also God’s eternal faithfulness on the other. As we read the Bible, its lessons reverberate through our lives, giving us the strength and the courage to continue. We don’t just look forward to the words of the prophets to understand how our lives might be a fulfillment of God’s promises for the future. We also look backwards, drawing courage and strength from our ancestors, as they are put before us in the Bible and throughout Jewish history.
Passover includes the celebration of freedom together with the memories of our enslavement. Today, as we experience mourning and loss, fear and uncertainty, we celebrate Passover and hope for our own redemption. We know it is around the corner. We can feel it. And I know you feel it too. Am Yisrael Chai!
