{ "clip_details": { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "readings-freedom", "title": "Readings on Freedom", "author": "Calev Ben Dor", "author_handle": "calevb1", "author_initials": "CB", "covertext": "They marched us down the length of Pozohony Street, toward the Margaret bridge and that was when we understood they were...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/114001/conversions/hagadah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/114001/hagadah.jpg", "body": "<p>They marched us down the length of Pozohony Street, toward the Margaret bridge and that was when we understood they were bringing us to the edge of the Danube, where they would shoot us and leave us to die under the ice.  When we arrived at the foot of the bridge, a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft appeared out of nowhere over our heads. The death march stopped, and there was a moment of chaos while the Nazi guards sought refuge in the entrance to buildings and shot their Schmeisser sub machine guns skyward. Mother and I were standing next to a small public toilet of metal and painted green and mother pushed me inside. ‘Pretend you’re peeing’ she said.  I stood there frozen with cold and fear, but I could not pee; when you are thirteen years old and frightened you cannot pee. The Soviet plane had meanwhile disappeared and the march resumed. Not a soul noticed that mother and I had remained in the toilet. Half an hour later, not a single person from the march was left alive.  This was a key moment in my life, the moment that defines me more accurately than any other – more than anything I ever did, more than any place I ever visited, more than any person I have ever met.  Not because I was spared – every survivor has his own story or a private miracle – but because I had nowhere to go….in this big wide world there was not a single place for a Jewish boy of thirteen whom everyone wants to kill.</p><p>So we went back to the ghetto. Years later on a trip I took to Budapest with Yair, we took a walk and found ourselves, without planning to, at the Margaret Bridge, We strolled along, chatting merrily when suddenly I stopped and, shaking, pointed at something ahead of us. At first Yair could not understand what it was that I was pointing at, but there it was: the public toilet made of metal and painted green. We stood there, two grown men, hugging and crying and stroking the green walls of the public toilet that saved my life, while the Hungarians who passed us on the street dud so with caution, convinced they were looking at two lunatics. My boy, I said once I was calm enough to speak, ‘it was in this place, without my even knowing it that I became a Zionist. It is the whole Zionist idea in fact, The State of Israel is a problematic place, and we’ll always have our arguments with it, but this is the very reason it was established. So that every Jewish child will always have a place to go.’ I hope that Yair understood. I am certain that he did not forget (Yair Lapid, Memories After My Death)</p><p>Then he [my father] told me in a whisper, without once calling me Your Highness or Your Honour, what some hooligans did to him and his brother David in Odessa and what some gentile boys did to him at his Polish school in Vilna, and the girls joined in too, and the next day, when his father, Grandpa Alexander, came to the school to register a complaint, the bullies refused to return the torn trousers but attacked his father, Grandpa, in front of his eyes, forced him down on the paving stones and removed his trousers too in the middle of the playground, and the girls laughed and made dirty jokes, saying that Jews were all so-and-sos, while the teachers watched and said nothing, or maybe they were laughing too. And still in a voice of darkness with his hand still losing its way in my hair (because he was not used to stroking my hair) my father told me under my blanket in the early hours of the thirtieth of November 1947, ‘Bullies may well bother you in the street or at school some day. They may do it precisely because you are a bit like me. But from now on, from the moment we have our own state, you will never be bullied just because you are a Jew and because Jews are so-and-sos. Not that. Never again. From tonight that’s finished here. For ever’ (Amos Oz, a Tale of Love and Darkness)</p><p>A thousand times it was hammered in to the head of every Jewish child that we must not irritate them, or hold our heads up, and we must only speak to them quietly, with a smile, so they shouldn’t say we were noisy, and we must always speak to them in good correct Polish, so they couldn’t say we were defiling the language, but we mustn’t speak in Polish that was too high, so they couldn’t say we had ambitions above our station and Heaven forbid they should say we had stains on our skirts.  In short, we had to try very hard to make a good impression…You who were born here in Israel can never understand how this constant drip drip distorts all your feelings, how it corrodes your human dignity like rust (Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness)</p><p>For a span of weeks or months, you could experience the freedom that comes from not feeling watched, the freedom of believing that your hair grows as its supposed to grow and that your rump sways the way a rump is supposed to sway.  You could read about the criminal on the front page of the daily paper and ponder the corruption of the human heart, without having to think about whether the criminal or lunatic said something about your own fate.  Here the world was black, and so you were just you; you could discover all those things that were unique to your life without living a lie or committing betrayal. (Barack Obama, Dreams from my Father)</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Amos Oz, Yair Lapid, Barack Obama", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 256, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Readings on Freedom | Passover haggadah by Calev Ben Dor", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/readings-freedom", "og:title": "Readings on Freedom | Passover haggadah by Calev Ben Dor", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, "contributed_by": { "author": "Calev Ben Dor", "handle": "calevb1", "author_initials": "CB", "total_books": 0, "total_clips": 3, "total_followers": 0, "is_following": 0 }, "user_book": null, "clips_by_author": [ { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "rejoicing-destruction-enemies-source-sheet", "title": "Rejoicing in Destruction of Enemies (Source Sheet)", "author": "Calev Ben Dor", "author_handle": "calevb1", "author_initials": "CB", "covertext": "On Succot, we are told three times to rejoice, but on Pesach we are not even told to rejoice once. This is because on Pe...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/114001/conversions/hagadah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/114001/hagadah.jpg", "body": "<p>On Succot, we are told three times to rejoice, but on Pesach we are not even told to rejoice once. This is because on Pesach the produce is judged and no ones knows whether he will have a productive year. Another opinion, because the Egyptians died. And similarly on Succot, each of the seven days we read Hallel, but on Pesach we only read Hallel on the first night and day, because as Shmuel says ‘don’t rejoice in the downfall of your enemies.’ (Proverbs 24:17)</p><p>R. Jonathan said: The Holy One, blessed be He, does not rejoice in the downfall of the wicked. For R. Samuel b. Nahman said in R. Jonathan's name: What is meant by, “and one came not near the other all the night”? In that hour the ministering angels wished to utter the song [of praise] before the Holy One, blessed be He, but He rebuked them, saying: My handiwork [the Egyptians] is drowning in the sea; and you want to sing! Said R. Jose b. Hanina: He Himself does not rejoice, yet He allows others to rejoice.</p><p>In the hour in which Israel were encamped on the sea, the ministering angels came to praise the Holy One blessed be He, yet He did not allow them, as it is said “and one came not near the other all the night” …thus, Israel found themselves in trouble on the sea, the ministering angels came to praise the Holy One blessed be He. He rebuked them saying, “my sons are in distress and you are praising me?”</p><p>At the time when God wanted to drown the Egyptians in the sea, Uzza, Egypt’s Guardian angel bowed down before God and said “Master of the world! You created the world through the attribute of mercy. Why do you seek to drown my sons? God immediately summoned the entire celestial family and said to them ‘arbitrate between me and Uzza, angel of Egypt.’ The guardian angels of the nations began to defend Egypt… until the angel Gabriel showed God a brick from Egypt with a baby entombed in it. 'Master of the world,' he said, 'thus did they enslave the Israelites.’</p><p>God immediately sentenced the Egyptians with midat hadin and drowned them in the sea. The ministering angels wanted to sing praises to God. But God silenced them, saying, 'My children are drowning in the sea and you want to sing before me?’ (Sefer HaAgaddah - Bialik and Ravitsky)</p><p>Our calendar currently has a cycle of three redemption holidays in spring. The central of course being Pesach which is preceded by Purim and followed by Yom Ha’atzmaut. Each one of these is preceded by a day of introspection. Ta’anit Bechorot before Pesach, Ta’anit Esther before Purim and Yom HaZikaron before Yom Ha’Atzma’ut. I propose that these days of introspection balance the celebration of redemption by raising awareness to the casualties of the process of redemption. Sadly, redemption is often a step away from human oppression and as such has often manifested in violent upheavals which left their own casualties in their wake.  Ta’anit Bechorot thus raises awareness of the death of the Egyptian firstborn (there are a few other moments like that on Pesach such as spilling wine from the cup during the seder) and Ta’anit Esther raises awareness of the thousands of deaths described in Chapter 9 of the Megilah. Yom HaZikaron is dedicated to the memory of the IDF soldiers who were killed fighting for the state of Israel. In light of the previous two models might it be possible to propose that it be dedicated to all the casualties of this process? For me, the lesson of this liturgical cycle is profound. It teaches me that the <span>celebration of redemption and the sadness over the process do not cancel each other out</span>. Too often we are tempted by the choice between ignoring the victims and denigrating the achievement. This liturgical cycle teaches me to celebrate redemption but to stop to think about the process and the victims before that. (Ebn Leader)</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Original", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Ten Plagues", "slug": "ten-plagues" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 342, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Rejoicing in Destruction of Enemies (Source Sheet) | Passover haggadah by Calev Ben Dor", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/rejoicing-destruction-enemies-source-sheet", "og:title": "Rejoicing in Destruction of Enemies (Source Sheet) | Passover haggadah by Calev Ben Dor", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "pour-out-your-anger-source-sheet", "title": "Pour Out Your Anger (Source sheet)", "author": "Calev Ben Dor", "author_handle": "calevb1", "author_initials": "CB", "covertext": "Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name  for they...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/114001/conversions/hagadah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/114001/hagadah.jpg", "body": "<p><strong>Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name  for they have devoured Jacob  and destroyed his home..</strong></p><p>Clearly this paragraph makes some people \"uncomfortable\" because it \"seems to defy the Seder’s universal themes of freedom and liberation.\" I, however, love it. Why the infatuation? Simple: I always picture the many beleaguered Jews, particularly but not only in Europe, for whom Passover, with its proximity to Easter, was a dangerous time. I imagine Jews who spent much of the year, not just Passover, fearful that the non-Jewish world might turn on them in violence and they would have little recourse to protect themselves. Suddenly, for one short paragraph, they opened the door of their homes—of course it was at a moment when most of their non-Jewish neighbors had already retired for the night—and publicly told them and the whole world just what they wished for them. For one brief moment they could let their desire for justice be heard publicly. They did not have to cower in fear. They did not have to accept whatever was dealt them because they were powerless to respond. Those thirty two words constituted the one moment during the year when they unambiguously could give voice to their feelings of pain for the torment they and previous generations had endured. (Deborah Lipstadt)</p><p>Three thinkers, Jan Assmann, the Jewish scholar Henri Atlan, and the Christian theologian Miroslav Volf, have something deeply insightful to say about Divine vengeance.  Atlan…suggests that “the best way to rid the world of the violent sacred is to reject it onto a transcendence.” The “transcendence of violence” results in “its being expelled from the normal horizon of things”. In other words – vengeance is removed from human calculation. It is G-d, not man, who is entitled to exercise it. To be sure, there are times when G-d commands human beings to act on His behalf – the battles against the Midianites and the Amalekites are two obvious examples. But once prophecy ceases, as it has done since late Second Temple times, so too does violence in the name of G-d.  Volf agrees with this analysis, and adds that “in a world of violence we are faced with an inescapable alternative: either G-d’s violence or human violence”. He adds: Most people who insist on G-d’s “nonviolence” cannot resist using violence themselves (or tacitly sanctioning its use by others). They deem the talk of G-d’s judgment irreverent, but think nothing of entrusting judgment into human hands . . . And so violence thrives, secretly nourished by belief in a G-d who refuses to wield the sword.</p><p>I think of the Jews of the Middle Ages, who saw their fellow Jews accused of killing Christian children to drink their blood, of poisoning wells, desecrating the host and spreading the plague…and then murdered en masse in the name of the G-d of love. We can still hear their responses: they are recorded for us in many of the lamentations, kinot, we say on the 9th Av. Yes, they appeal to G-d’s vengeance, which is to say, to G-d’s justice. But Jews did not seek to take vengeance. That is something you leave to G-d. There is a justice we will not see this side of the end of days.  In the meantime, it is sufficient to live, and affirm life, and seek no more than the right to be true to your faith without fear – no more than the right to live and defend that selfsame right for your children. The search for perfect justice is not for us, here, now. (Jonathan Sacks)</p><p>In the ghettos of Europe, Jews opened their doors at this moment in the seder for two fascinating and conflicting reasons. One was to let the gentiles see that, yes, indeed, the Jews were doing what they claimed they were doing, having an innocent meal together – no Christian children being slaughtered here thank you very much. At the same time, employing words not understood by their neighbours, the Jews were venting their anger at the gentiles who were making their lives a misery.</p><p>The anger of our ghetto ancestors were understandable. Why not let powerless people have their fantasies of justice and revenge? But should we pour out our wrath today, onto societies that accept us? Or, to ask the question another way, is righteous anger, even aimed at ancient enemies, and not our neighbors, ennobling or distorting? Anger channelled destructively, can lead to vindictiveness, to a kind of constricting tribalism that sees everyone on the other side of our circles wagons as an enemy. Destructive anger is one of the great dangers of our age. Technology has, among other things, enabled the instantaneous transmission of invective; the internet is used all too often to demonise and polarise. The Talmud tells us that God loves the man who does not get angry. But isn’t anger also a useful motivator? Isn’t there such a thing as righteous anger? The abolitionists were angry; the suffragists were angry; Herzl was angry; Gandhi was angry. But they poured their wrath not into vengeful violence but into new foundations of justice. But how do we know when our constructive anger becomes dangerous? Can we ever trust our emotions or is that why we have law, because we cant? (Jeffrey Goldberg)</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Original", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 233, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Pour Out Your Anger (Source sheet) | Passover haggadah by Calev Ben Dor", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. 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