Opening remarks by Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz, editor of the Ḥerut | Liberté anthology, a bilingual Hebrew–French collection for Passover. In these words, she emphasizes how, in both languages, the anthology voices a shared plea: for the full freedom of the hostages still held in captivity, for the embrace of Passover’s values, and for renewed action on behalf of all who yearn to be released from bondage and suffering.
The teaching that “In every generation, one must see oneself as though one personally went out from Egypt” takes on, this year too, a new and deeper meaning. We are asked to imagine ourselves leaving Egypt, while our brothers and sisters remain imprisoned there, with no knowledge of when they will return. As time passes, the pain only intensifies—piercing, despairing—and yet, at the same time, it demands of us hope: a hope that clings to every crack.
Alongside our cry for the freedom still needed, we also sit this festival with those who have returned from the hell of captivity, and the gratitude they and their loved ones feel—and that we all share—is palpable, moment by moment. A cry rises to us from the meitzarim—from the narrow straits—as the season of the festival arrives while suffering remains unended. It is the inaudible cry from tunnels and underground channels where hostages are bound, and the ever-growing outcry of their families and communities. Even when we feel helpless before this reality, we are in distress together with them.
If there is a central call that emerges from this anthology, it is the plea and the prayer that our meitzarim—our straits—will meet each other. The suffocated cries of the hostages and our own cries outside converge into one great cry for deliverance, for a passage “from darkness to light, and from bondage to redemption.”
In this anthology, we sought to weave together different voices that make space for this complexity, reminding us that everything has changed on this night. One may choose to leave an empty chair at the Seder table, embodying the absence of the hostages and the hope for their freedom. One may draw on the traditional words of the Haggadah, or add words from the poems, prayers, songs, and essays gathered here. Our intention is not to blur reality or sweeten its bitterness, but to offer words that might help us carry it.
