After Yachatz:

This yearning for freedom is universal.  Each of us is a slave -- a slave to our work, a slave to our prejudices, a slave to old grudges.  And each of us can aspire to our own Israel, a time and place where we can be freed from the habits and patterns that bind and blind our lives.

Decades ago we thought that a handshake on the White House lawn held out the prospect that the old pattern of conflict would be replaced by a new era of reconciliation in the land of Israel.  It was not to be.

We conatinue to search for a glimmer of hope for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.  It will not be easy because each step in the journey toward peace will require a leap of faith by both communities.  Each step will require a willingness --not to forget the past, but to move beyond it.

Freedom and peace will come only when the bonds of hatred and retaliation are torn away, one strap at a time.  Now we are slaves to the past.  Next year may we be free to live in peace.


haggadah Section: Yachatz