This evening the rabbi and I are leading the Szim Salom community seder at the Hotel Benczúr in Budapest. I am busy preparing, and leave Szolnok in just a few hours, so this will be short.
It is our first seder in person since 2019, so I am grateful for that! Lots of people will be there, from around the world, and we will hold a Pesach seder according to our Haggadah, along with feasting, songs, and stories.
It is customary in many Jewish communities, around this holiday, to think about what enslavement and liberation means to each of us, and what it means in the world. As far as the world is concerned, war is analogous to enslavement (though not the same thing), because if you are caught in it, you lose the ability to direct your own life. Some choices you still can make, but other choices, including whether to make it to the next day or whether to keep your dog, are made for you. It is not going to be easy to bring the war in Ukraine to an end; the Russian government seems bent on continuing, and many countries opposed to the war are trying to play it safe. But if somehow this could be halted permanently, then that would be liberation, though not the end of the problems. Millions have seen their lives upended, and thousands have not lived to see it. Others, whose lives are relatively stable, still feel the anxiety of a possible terrible turn.
As for enslavement in my country of origin, I hope that discussions of racism in the U.S. will come to balance confrontation with humanity, so that people can boldly look at history and the current situation—in classrooms, in private conversation, in the media, in introspection—while also respecting the dignity and infinity of others, no matter what their race or background. These two truths can be held at once: that there are many deep-rooted problems to address, and that no one can sum up another, no one knows entirely what another person has gone through or thinks or feels.
As for personal liberation, I have been leaving years of fears behind, even recently: fears of failure and disappointment, fears that things important to me would go wrong. It puzzles me that it took so long. Still I know that life doesn’t always go the way I wish, or the way anyone wishes. Disappointments happen for all sorts of reasons, but they aren’t inevitable. That’s a big shift for me: knowing that things I care about can go well, and taking part in them with that calm knowledge.
Chág Peszách Száméách! And happy Easter! And to those celebrating neither, have a nice long weekend, if indeed your weekend is long! And if it isn’t, may it still have some restfulness and cheer.
Take Away the Takeaway 
veronikakisfalvi4972
/ April 15, 2022Thank you, and wishing you a happy and meaningful Pesach, Diana! ________________________________
Diana Senechal
/ April 15, 2022Thank you, Vera!