There is no Seder in Israel this year.

Rabbi Yael Karrie will not be home or with her community for the Seder this year. In fact, Rabbi Karrie has not been home in 6 months. She was forced to leave her community in Rosh HaNikra in the North at the beginning of the war.

Now staying in Haifa, Yael travels to different hotels visiting Jewish families displaced from the North who all will not be in their homes this Passover.

Rabbi Yael Karrie leading a Friday night Shabbat service in a hotel in Tiberias for refugees from the North

Rabbi Yael Karrie

“The night of the Seder means ‘order.’ There is no ‘order’ to our lives this year,” declares Rabbi Karrie. “Too much has changed. How can we sit with our families in our homes like every other Seder night when our brothers and sisters are still being held captive?”

While redemption will feel more distant this year, the power of community feels more alive than ever.

Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis is crafting a special message for her community this year. Like so many throughout the State of Israel many members of her community are experiencing PTSD from the last six months. The pressures of the war have accumulated and have not yet been fully processed and attended to.

Rabbanit Mirvis suggests that perhaps the secret to Jewish survival over the centuries is our ability to dedicate moments to speak, to give expression to painful experiences where we struggle to find words. The special mitzvah of the night of the Seder is to Tell our Story. In “Every Generation,” – we are asked to use our own words to give voice to our stories.

Perhaps this is how the Jewish people overcame 400 years of slavery in Egypt?

Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis with her community in Efrat.

She is asking families in her community to use the Seder as a time to give voice to all that they have gone through over these last six months… where were they on the morning of Oct 7? How have their children coped with having parents in the army? To share moments when the fear gripped us.

To speak and tell so that we transform trauma into healthy memory.

Perhaps this is the secret of Jewish survival.

In Every Generation the Jewish People has extraordinary leaders.

The Honey Foundation helps provide hundreds of Israeli communities with the spiritual leaders who are able to bring order and healing to our world.

The Honey Foundation for Israel

Empowering and strengthening the
spiritual leaders Israelis need now.

Previous Next