Please sign this PETITION and urge others to sign.
Belmont s
hul (near Stanmore) Pesach newsletter, Kadimah March 2013
PESACH THOUGHTS
As we sift through the crumbs in every nook and cranny of our homes, and believe you me, little Yehudah sure manages to get his cheerios into every possible nook and cranny of our homes, it seems hard to believe that Pesach is really a festival of freedom and not a time to celebrate our slavery as women chained to a life of “in the kitchen and by the sink oppression” for most of the Yom Toy. What about our workload is actually symbolic of freedom? To me it looks like a lot of hard work!!! Please don’t tell me that this is not just another men’s holiday where they get to relax and enjoy whilst we make sure everything is prepared and ready for our families?!
If we look at the teachings of our sages we find as follows, “It is in the merit of the righteous women that we merited to be redeemed from Egypt” (Shemot Rabbah Chapter 1). What was it that we women did that was so great that caused our 210 years of suffering to end? it was the women who had the foresight to say that even though our suffering now seems so overwhelming, even though there is death and destruction all around us and babies are being torn away from their mothers arms and thrown into the Nile river, even though we seem to be in our darkest hour, still there will be a better tomorrow. G-d has promised us that He will redeem us, and our faith in G-d is so strong, we know that this will happen and that we will be saved. So rather than sitting on Seder night falling asleep from exhaustion and feeling like a slave, we should feel like true Jewish Princesses knowing what a central causative role we had in the coming out of Egypt.
We all have our own situations in our lives or the lives of those we hold dear which are bleak and frightening. Whilst we are suffering it seems that there is no end in sight. But yet inside each of us is a spark of hope that cannot be extinguished that can allow us in our darkest moment to still believe that there is hope.
I would like to focus on one such situation. Many of us may have been following in the Jewish newspapers or via Facebook the plight of a young British mother in Austria whose twin two year old boys were taken from her by her ex-husband in a bitter court case which resulted in sole custody being granted to her ex-husband 18 months ago. Beth Alexander is still trying to appeal the courts highly suspicious and unjust ruling. Her boys are clearly suffering being denied under false pretences, the care and nurturing of the one person in the world who knows them best. Please view https://helpbeth.org for more details.
In this modern day version, the twins were also taken from their mothers arms, with only half an hours notice. Beth and her two boys Sammy and Benji desperately need a redemption, they need to be reunited so that the two innocent little boys can develop and thrive once again in their mothers arms. Just like in Egypt the redemption came in an instance; let us hope at this time of Pesach that this family, along with all those going through hardship, should miraculously see a salvation. And as women, maybe as we each light our candles beckoning in the holiday of freedom, of Pesach, we should pray at this time that Beth and her boys should also be freed.
May we see that Baila Rochel bat Tzivya, Shmuel Zeev ben Saila Rochel and Binyamin Leib ben Baila Rochel should all be reunited soon and as our sages continue “in the future it will also be in the merit of righteous women that we will be redeemed”
Wishing all of the Belmont community a wonderful Pesach of freedom
Love
Rebbetzin Jacqueline