The worst Erev Pesach - Really?

The last time that I would normally be sitting down to write is Erev Pesach afternoon – usually the busiest day of the year.  So, I will keep it brief, but I've got to get this out.

Baruch Hashem, the news in Eretz Yisroel is terrible, but not awful.  There are at this moment 72 deaths so far in the Holy Land, and many are sick.  But compared to what is going on in the communities that I lived in for a long time in America, … what can one say?  I just got off the phone with my sister, whose brother in law passed this morning.  His wife is in the ICU and does not yet know רח"ל.  The funeral of the Novominsker Rebbe this morning, three friends last week, including a husband and wife to whom I was very close.  I have several very sick relatives, I could go on, but those in America know of the carnage far better than me.

Yet, tonight we are to celebrate ליל שימורים, the Night of Special Protection, when Hashem watched over us like no other time, while a plague was ravaging thousands outdoors.  The Halacha is that one is exempt from reciting the bedtime Shema because there is that extra measure of protection.  And boy, do we ever need it.  
One thing that gives us hope is the fact that for the second time in history, by law, we have been told

(וְאַתֶּם לֹא תֵצְאוּ אִישׁ מִפֶּתַח בֵּיתוֹ עַד בֹּקֶר (שמות יב:כב

"No Person shall leave the door of their home until morning." 

The Israeli government has decreed that, for the second time in history, we must not walk out of our homes tonight.  Perhaps, this is an additional level of the Night of Special Protection that we will be privy to.

But there is one more thought that I wanted to share, that will perhaps help put this in perspective for us.  A while back, someone sent me the following document, that I never quite appreciated until now.  It is a text that was written in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, before Pesach, to be read on Pesach eve.

It says as follows:

Before eating Chametz, one should say with fervent intent:

Our Father in Heaven, it is known and revealed before you, that our will is to do Your will and to celebrate the Holiday of Pesach by eating Matzah and being careful to refrain from violating the prohibition against eating Chametz. But for this, our hearts are saddened, that the persecution we face stops us from doing so, and we are in danger for our very lives.  We prepare ourselves to fulfill the commandment "And you shall live by them – and not die because of them, and to be careful regarding danger, and "Be very careful to guard your soul carefully.  Our prayer, thus, is that you should keep us alive and watch over us and redeem us soon, so that we can fully observe Your Laws, and do Your will, and serve You with a whole heart.  Amen.

There is not much one can say to comment on such tragically eloquent faith.

There is only this.  

We are going through a frightful time.  But almost all of us are in our homes, and we will celebrate the Seder with our most beautiful dishes in our comfortable living rooms and dining rooms, with plenty of good food, albeit without all the relatives and friends that we might wish were here with us.  We will lay down in our comfortable beds, sated on strictly kosher Matzah and meat, and enjoy being with our closest ones in peace and security.  The Jewish people have gone through far, far, more difficult times.  Though it did not seem so at the time, as several survivors often told me (particularly Mr. Sam Weisinger ע"ה), if you opened your eyes in the concentration camp, God was constantly watching over us. "But for His constant help and protection". He would say, "I would have never survived."

Let us hope that this night of Special Protection will, at the least, mark the beginning of the end of this awful plague, let us feel confident that "while in every generation we are in danger, G-d protects us", and that just as immediately following the night of seclusion 3,300 years ago, the Redemption should follow immediately.

חג כשר ושמח

Chag Kosher Vesameach