Every year in the Haggadah, we say the meaningful words of “vehi she’amda,” where we declare “shelo echad bilvad amad alenu lechalotenu,” “since it is not [only] one [person or nation] that has stood [against] us to destroy us.”
Rabbi Yosef Messas, in his book Vayizkor Yosef on the Haggadah, writes that he found in an ancient Haggadah manuscript that the right version version of the text is“shelo ehad amad alenu lesha’abednu,” “since it is not [only] one [person or nation] that has stood [against] us to enslave us.”
Rabbi Messas, however, disagrees with this version, declaring that the right version is “to destroy us.” He proves his point by stating that since Pharaoh decreed that all male babies would be thrown into the river, his intention was to destroy the Jewish people, since after the death of the first generation, there would be no continuity to the Jewish nation; if it would not be for God, Pharaoh would have destroyed us.
This text is extremely powerful to read each year, reminding us of our painful past of pogroms, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Holocaust, among many other calamities. But this year it is more relevant than ever, after the devastating occurrence of October 7 where 1,200 innocent people died and close to 700 soldiers fell defending our country, the greatest tragedy for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
However, despite all the sadness that this tragedy created, mourning the loss of so many of our brothers and sisters including Ben Mizrahi, HY”D, who I considered like one of my children, and died as a hero saving people’s lives, we also saw so many miracles occurring before our eyes.
It is not in vain that both God and Moshe Rabbneu describe Am Yisrael as an “am keshe oref,” a hard stiff necked people who are stubborn and resilient.
While history repeats itself, and here we are again, dealing with alarming antisemitism all over the world, we will survive!
Many ideologies and nations much greater in numbers than Am Yisrael are gone but we are still around!
Let us all pray that we will see the glory of the Almighty residing in Jerusalem and may the words of Isaiah, “God will wipe the tears away from all faces,” be fulfilled speedily in our days. Amen.
Rabbi Ilan Acoca is the rabbi of Congregation Bet Yosef of Fort Lee. He is a faculty member of Yeshivat Shalshelet and Moriah School. Rabbi Acoca serves as an executive member of the Rabbinical Council of America, as well as a member of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, the Sephardic Metivta and the Habura. He is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth Hamiidrash of Vancouver and the author of the book “The Sepahrdic Book of Why”.
