Retell the Story

Haggadah Section: Conclusion

The Struggle Continues

The struggle for freedom is constant. In every age, new freedoms are won. Yet each age also creates more Pharaohs. We must work towards a time when everyone will be free from oppression.

On this Seder night, we recall, with anguish and with love, the six million Jews of Europe, who were destroyed at the hands of a modern-day Pharaoh; one far worse than Pharaoh of Egypt. Their memory must never be forgotten. The atrocities of the Holocaust must always be remembered, and the story retold, just as the story of Exodus is retold.

The memory of the six million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis will never be forgotten, the light of their hope shall never be extinguished.

We now read an excerpt from "Ani Maamin," a poem by Elie Weisel, about Passover in the concentration camps.

Ani Maamin

A camp. An inmate.
A creature without a name, A man without a face,
Without a destiny,
It is night,
The first night of Passover.
The camp is asleep, He alone is awake.
He talks to himself Soundlessly.
I hear his words, I capture his silence,
To himself, to me, He is saying:
I have not partaken of Matzot, Nor of Marror.
I have not emptied the four cups, Symbols of the four deliverances.
I did not invite the hungry to share my repast - Or even the hunger.
No longer have I a son to ask me the four questions - No longer have I the strength to answer ...
The parable of Chad Gadya is misleading:
God will not come to slay the slaughterer.
The innocent victims will go unavenged.
The ancient wish -Leshana Habaa Bi-Yerushalaim -
Will not be granted.
I shall not be in Jerusalem next year. Or anywhere else.
Next year I shall not be. And then,
How do I know that Jerusalem is there, Far away,
That Jerusalem is not here?
Still, I recite the Haggadah As though I believe in it.
And I wait the prophet Elijah, As I did long ago.
I open my heart to him and say: Welcome, prophet of the promise,
Welcome, herald of redemption. Come, share in my story.
Come, rejoice with the Dead that we are.
Empty the cup that bears your name.
Come to us, Come to us on this Passover night: We are in Egypt,
And we are the ones to suffer God's plagues.
Come, friend of the poor, Defender of the oppressed,
Come. I shall wait for you.
And even if you disappoint me, I shall go on waiting.
Ani Maamin

Source:  
Elie Weisel

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