by Dr. David Sanders
Yesterday, I had a sudden urge to cook Matzoh Brei (rhymes with fry). It has been my custom to eat Matzoh on the day that is designated as Second Passover but I was not tracking the date. My mind was preoccupied with the hostages in Gaza.
What is Second Passover? It is a dispensation for those who were not able to celebrate Passover with the community in the prior month of Nissan, a day to reflect with others on what freedom means. I eat Matzoh to be in solidarity with those who were or are, due to extenuating circumstances, unable to gather for a Passover seder.
On April 27th, 1945 the Jewish survivors of the Buchenwald Concentration camp gathered for a makeshift Passover Seder. It was Second Passover that year. A month prior to that, when Passover was celebrated by Jews around the world, the prisoners in Buchenwald were fighting to stay alive. The camp was liberated by the U.S. Army on April 11. The Jewish chaplain accompanying the U.S. Third Army, Rabbi Herschel Schacter, deemed it appropriate to gather the survivors.
Rabbi Schacter, who lived to the age of 95, recollected a conversation he had with a young boy he met on the day he entered the camp.
What’s your name, my child?
My name is Lulek.
How old are you?
What difference does it make? I’m older than you, anyway.
Why do you think you’re older?
Because you cry and laugh like a child. I haven’t laughed in a long time, and I don’t even cry anymore. Which one of us is older?
That spring in Buchenwald that little 7-year-old boy ate some matzoh and, in a service led by Rabbi Schacter said Kaddish for his murdered parents. Lulek, after emigrating to Israel when he was even “older” was appointed the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. Rabbi Lau, as he is no longer known by Lulek, is still living.
My prior blog was published as we were starting the count of 50 days from Passover to Shavuot. I pointed out that this year the counting of those days aligned with the count of days the hostages have been held captive in Gaza. Today is day 30 of the count and day 230 of their captivity. I was hoping that at least some of the remaining hostages who missed celebrating Passover last month would be able to celebrate Second Passover with their families this month.
Yesterday, Second Passover, Israeli parents released a video they had viewed of the capture of their five daughters who were stationed at the Nahal Oz base. They were taken into captivity on October 7. The video is footage from bodycams taken by the Hamas terrorists.
Unit 414, was mostly comprised of female intelligence soldiers who were overseeing surveillance of the Gaza border from their Nahal Oz base. There was a total of 7 women soldiers taken hostage. One of the 7 who were taken hostage was rescued by IDF soldiers and another was murdered in Gaza. Another 15 women soldiers, in their late teens, who were not in possession of weapons and tried to hide were either gassed or burned to death.
I have watched many disturbing videos and have refrained from watching some others from the October 7th massacre. This video pierces the heart. The fate of these five young women is unknown. One never knows what one is destined for, as Lulek could profess. Those 5 young women still in captivity are already “older” than all of us. May they survive and celebrate with their families a Second Passover.
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