Pesach is, to me, the most difficult holiday to celebrate right now. Since Oct 7th we've had a few holidays, but Pesach is the one that pains me most so far.
Hanukkah made sense. We are fighting to keep our homeland, as the Maccabees did. We have Israel now, and we will still have Israel. The holiday celebrating our resistance against those who wished to destroy us in our home made sense.
Purim made sense. Yes, it was painful to celebrate the holiday of joy, but we have resisted a force that wishes to eliminate each and every one of us. Just as we did in Persia against Haman, we are defending ourselves because never again will we be put in the position of being at our oppressor's mercy.
Pesach does not make sense. How are we to celebrate being taken out of captivity when over a hundred of our brothers and sisters are still being held captive? How are we to cheer about our freedom when our own people are not free? How can we celebrate G-d's hand coming down to free us when members of our Jewish family have not been free for over half a year?
It is painful. It physically hurts my chest to think about all of this. I wish for G-d to carry our people again, this time from the tunnels under Gaza. From the violent antisemitism we have been seeing happening all around. May we yet again experience freedom from those who wish us harm.
I in no way am saying that we should not celebrate Pesach. If anything, it is more important now than ever to celebrate and pray for freedom. I am just sharing my own feelings on the matter.
As was said then, we say now: LET OUR PEOPLE GO!
