To all of our dear friends and partners,

Why is Moshe Rabeinu not mentioned in the Passover Haggadah?

The great and esteemed rabbinical leader Rav Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam from Sanz-Klausenberg, lost his wife and eleven children in the Holocaust, but like a cinder that was saved from the fire, he immigrated to the Land of Israel, shook off his grief and began to weave for himself a new life, married again and had seven more children. Over the decades he established a wonderful system of Torah, education and charity institutions, among which was the Laniado Hospital.

Rav Halberstam, may his holy memory be blessed, used to say: Passover eve and the reading of the Haggadah are the source of encouragement and hope to persecuted and tortured Jews, in the diaspora, in the dungeons of the Inquisition, in the ghettoes and in the Germans’ camps.

When the Jews read the story of the first redemption, they became filled with hope and said to themselves: “We have survived Pharaoh, we will survive this too”. This encouraging statement might be said, ironically, because Moshe Rabeinu is not present in the story of the Haggadah. If the dominant and unique figure of Moshe Rabeinu was given its rightful place in the Haggadah, it might have had a discouraging effect on the Jews over the generations and filled them with worry and fear. The oppressed and persecuted Jews over the generations might have thought that redemption depends on the presence and leadership of a great leader such as Moshe, but now, absent such a figure, “we are lost…”.

Moshe Rabeinu is not mentioned in the story of the Haggadah in order to teach us that every one of us must see ourselves as coming out of Egypt; but not only this – also to bring others out of Egypt. The absence of Moshe Rabeinu among the pages of the Haggadah leaves the arena to the simple people of that generation, in the generations that have passed, until our generation, and inspires them with encouragement, hope and faith in their own power to act for freedom, for sovereignty.

Each and every one of us acts and continues, with even more determination, to march toward our goal – the application of sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel.

Following the Fourth Sovereignty Conference, which garnered extremely positive responses, and after the distribution of Issue no. 8 of the Sovereignty Journal in 200,000 copies in Hebrew and in English throughout Israel and abroad, we are now working hard on plans for continuing to instill the awareness of the need and the value of sovereignty in the political and public spheres.

We take this opportunity to update you, partners and friends, that at the OZ veGaon Nature Preserve, security components have been installed, the activity area has been expanded by the planting of a thousand(!) trees, a volunteers’ tent has been added (we cannot specify all of the details…). We have progressed with a systematic program and we are now working diligently to mobilize resources to promote a TABA (City Building Plan) so that we can anchor the preserve, to strengthen its status and build in it as a standard, legal and safe site.

We add, further, that many groups continue to come to the Oz veGaon Preserve, one after the other; many youths from all areas of the country also come to learn, to work and to connect to the practical values of Zionism,  values of holding onto the land. Youths hear discussions about Zionism ‘then and now’ and afterward they are given work tools that they  use in the field to develop and improve the preserve.

All of this is happening and will continue to happen thanks to your partnership, and indeed, this is another fortuitous opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to all of you for your support. Together we will continue, with G-d’s help, to act.

News item: Immediately after Passover, we will begin sending a newsletter every week with which we will update you with news of the promotion and advancement of sovereignty; we will direct you to new articles and reports on the Sovereignty site that we inaugurated a few months ago and which we invite you to enter to get the latest news (ribonut.co.il).

We wish an uplifting Holiday of Freedom to all!