by Esther Korson
On my last blog before the Passover holiday, entitled “Passover with a Blood Red Moon in Jerusalem,” I told about the beginning of the Passover holiday. Even though the Passover week is over, I’d still love to share with you what life was like here in Israel during the week following the Seder itself.
If you were visiting here, the next strange thing that you’d notice in the shops—after all the bread products disappeared— is that barbecue supplies of every sort were on display. During the Passover week, 3.6 million Israelis visited the national parks and recreational areas for barbecues and picnics and hikes and fun family time. You have to be sure that the entire country smelled like one enormous barbecue! And also bear in mind that since Israel is so tiny, with a total population of seven million that means that a lot of people visited those sites! And that didn’t include hundreds of thousands of cyclists taking to the bike trails! (One time as a family some years ago we went for a picnic in one of the parks a little late, and we could not even find a single rock to sit down on, it was so crowded!)
The traffic jams were phenomenal as so many people took to the roads. Jerusalem was the worst for snarled traffic, since not only is it a Biblical imperative to come up to Jerusalem during the Passover festival, but since this Passover coincided with Easter Sunday; many thousands of Christian tourists were here as well. One day during the Passover week I went to my favourite little supermarket to pick up supplies and needed to take a taxi home with the groceries. Usually the ride takes only 10 minutes! But on this lovely Passover day, the traffic was so terrible that I said to the driver, “I could walk faster!” We both laughed, but then the traffic stopped altogether, which was no laughing matter. It took more than 30 minutes for that usually short ride!This truly is a tiny country, but people have often commented that it feels like the Lord put a little bit of the whole world into it. (Those of you who have visited Israel will know what I mean). The scenery changes quickly and there are so many beautiful places to see and to visit throughout the land. In the spring the countryside is covered with wildflowers (there is a law preventing people from picking them so that they can be enjoyed by everybody) and it makes everything even more beautiful than normal. That helps to make this the perfect time to see the land plus Israelis love to be together! The hikes and picnics and barbeques and bike rides were all a big part of Passover week.
I’m going to share a little bit about Israeli soldiers. It seems like a diversion from Passover celebrations, but you’ll see in a minute that it is not. Every young man or woman at the age of 18 is conscripted into the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). —women for two years, men for 3 years—plus they are available for reserve duty until the age of 49. As the saying goes, “They give us the best years of their lives.” Even though they are conscripted, more than 90% of the young people say that they would enlist anyway, because they know that they are protecting their families and their country. The soldiers are our children, and they are treasured.
There is another phenomenon that you might not be aware of, however. As the Jewish nation we are one big family and have come to Israel from almost all of the nations in the world. And there are also Jewish young people from many countries who leave the security of their homes and their families to become Israeli citizens and to serve in the IDF They are called “Lone Soldiers” because they have no families here in the country. Special Passover arrangements are made for these young men and women, sponsored and organized by the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers, the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association, the IDF Manpower Directorate and the IDF Youth and Education Corps.
Major Rotem Klein, Head of the Office for Lone Soldiers in the Manpower Directorate, explained that this Passover event has a special place in her heart. As she explained, “We have over five thousand lone soldiers in the IDF, and it is my job to make sure that each one of them has somewhere to celebrate the holiday. This single event represents the heart of all the care we provide to lone soldiers throughout the year.”
The main event is a Seder celebration—this year for 800 lone soldiers—at a holiday resort on the coast with a traditional Passover Seder presided over by Chief of Staff Lt. General Benny Gantz. The organizer of the Seder itself, Eti Avargel, explains it like this: “Passover conjures images of extended families sitting around long tables, sharing food and tradition and telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt late into the night. The idea is to celebrate the most family-oriented event of the whole year with a warm embrace for the lone soldiers, to bring them closer and be their family for the night.”
The soldiers begin arriving at the resort at 9:00 in the morning and are treated to a range of gifts and surprises. First of all, they are led into a room lined with smart phones and are invited to phone their parents to wish them a happy holiday. The room stays open throughout the day so that soldiers from every country, spanning every time zone, can speak with their loved ones.
The soldiers are then led to their rooms, with views overlooking the sparkling Mediterranean Sea, to find a box full of gifts. At noon they meet with the Chief of Staff, who raises a glass to toast the soldiers and thank them personally for their service. Then, after sundown, everyone gathers for the Passover celebration.
“The word ‘lone’ becomes so completely irrelevant in a room full of people speaking every different language, sharing the holiday together, reading the haggada together—it’s just a spectacular thing to see,” says Avargel. “As delegates of the Jewish people and the citizens of Israel it is our way to say thank you to these young people. When the tables fill up and the sounds of every language ring through the hall—Hebrew predominant among them—the magic of the evening is almost tangible.”
Avergel continues, “There is something incredible about having a lone soldier from England, Brazil and Russia sitting around the same table with soldiers from the Education Corps and representatives of the donors. There is something in the symbolism of this message about the special connection between the Diaspora, the State of Israel, the IDF and its soldiers…” This year, the IDF flew a father from Australia to surprise his son enabling them to celebrate the holiday together.
And what about the rest of the lone soldiers who do not attend the communal Passover celebration? Major Klein explains, “Thousands of families call in every year to the IDF to invite soldiers to their own family celebrations. We actually have far more families than there are soldiers that need a place to go, which truly warms the heart to see.”(IDF: Passover Seder for lone soldiers)
At the end of the Passover, guess who the heroes of Israel are? The bakers! I was actually in the little grocery store when the bread truck arrived the morning after Passover ended. “The bread is here!” announced the owner of the store. The announcement met with smiles from everyone, myself included!.
Once a famous actress came for a visit to Israel and at a reception in her honour, a gentleman introduced himself. “My name is Mr. Angel,” he told her, “and I’m the head of the biggest mafia in Israel.”
She was shocked that he announced it so openly and that he could be out in a public place. I guess she didn’t know that “mafia” is the Hebrew word for bakery!
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