I can’t imagine the feelings of our ancestors, watching with their own eyes the affliction of the ten plagues on the Egyptians, knowing that their redemption was around the corner. What were the conversations about the night they consumed the pascal lamb? Could an enslaved people even comprehend the notion of freedom?

It is said that the Israelites had descended to the 49th level of impurity, and had they been on the 50th level, they would not have been redeemed. There was no life beyond servitude. Nonetheless, B’nei Israel were freed from the bondage of slavery, and our nation was born.

I find myself also anticipating a redemption. I have many emotions flowing through me. I feel wronged. I’m angry. I feel sucker punched repeatedly, each blow coming from a different angle? I feel on edge. I know that I am going to be attacked – I feel it coming, but I’m not sure from where. Is it going to be from the media, encampments at universities, my own government, or a colleague with whom I exchange pleasantries each morning at the photocopier? Is this what the Israelites felt in the wilderness of Sinai when Amalek, bent on the destruction of the Jewish people, attacked them?

 Our tradition teaches us that it is always darkest before the dawn. Our Jewish tomorrows don’t start in the morning, but at the sun’s setting the night before. The new moon appears in the sky, signalling a new Jewish month only after we have seen its complete disappearance. Our moon, like us, waxes and wanes. The moon goes through a cycle, but ultimately emerges. Even in these dark days, we will emerge even brighter than before.

As we sit down at the Seder table this year, and we are once again joined by some of our returned brethren, our thoughts are with those who in captivity, still long to be redeemed. We pray that redemption of all forms comes speedily in our days.

As it says in the Haggadah, “And it is this (the Torah) that has stood by our ancestors and for us. For not only one (enemy) has risen up against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise up to destroy us. But the Holy One, Blessed be He, delivers us from their hands.”