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Iran refuses to halt uranium enrichment to 20% until US sanctions lifted: report

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Iran refuses to halt uranium enrichment to 20% until US sanctions lifted: report

Biden said mulling sanctions relief for Iran halting 20% enrichment, ceasing work on advanced centrifuges.

Iran will not stop enriching uranium to 20 percent until the US lifts all of its crippling sanctions on Tehran’s economy, Iran’s state-backed PressTV reported on Tuesday.

The outlet cited a senior Iranian official as the source for the message, delivered as an apparent response to a proposal purportedly being mulled by Washington.

According to Monday’s report by Politico, the administration of US President Joe Biden is considering removing some of the sanctions in exchange for the Islamic Republic halting the 20 percent enrichment, as well as its work on advanced centrifuges.

The offer is not finalized yet and is expected to be submitted this week, it added.

It cited a source in the Biden team as saying that the move is mostly aimed at breaking the ice and starting a dialogue.

According to the newspaper, there is no ongoing direct contact between Washington and Tehran, with outreach efforts mediated by Europe.

Biden has voiced the intention to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal that his predecessor former President Donald Trump pulled the US out of.

However, the two sides are at odds as to who has to return to full compliance with the accord first.

(i24 News).

Migrants stream through gaps in the border wall following Biden’s order to halt construction

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Migrants stream through gaps in the border wall following Biden’s order to halt construction

Thousands of tons of steel and heavy equipment stand idle along the country’s southern border as legions of migrants exploit holes in the fence left by President Biden’s decision to halt construction.

From Texas to California, unfinished sections of the wall have become convenient gateways for migrants to enter the U.S. Near the gaps, Border agents park their vehicles to monitor the access points.

Smugglers send groups of asylum seekers through the gaps to overwhelm the agents. When agents leave to intercept or apprehend one group, another group scampers across.

“It’s insane,” said an agent attending to a group of 13 Brazilian migrants apprehended Tuesday near a 100-foot gap in the fence in Otay Mesa, Ca. “The project is ¾ done. At least, they should be allowed to tie together the primary fence. Otherwise, we’re trying to catch these people in the worst possible place. It’s just sucking our manpower.”

Biden issued his stop work order days after entering office in January. He gave Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas 60 days to report back – either continue, modify or terminate the contracts. So far Mayorkas is a week past his deadline.

Meanwhile, the tab footed by taxpayers keeps running up. No work is getting done and experts say canceling those valid contracts – while legal – costs a million dollars a month and the government could end up paying more to cancel the contracts than complete them.

“The contractor hasn’t stopped receiving money, even though they’re not working for two months. The contractors are being paid because they have resources, workers, equipment, materials that can’t be redeployed because they’re still on contract to build a project,” said Associated General Contractors of America’s Brian Turnmail.

“The government is paying contractors up to a million dollars a month to be on standby. That’s going to the total cost. So, if the government takes a long time to resolve the dispute, that will cost taxpayers more.”

President Trump built 455 miles of new border wall. President Biden has enough cash left – about $3 billion – to finish another 200 miles. According to the Army Corp of Engineers about 39 fence projects across the border stand idle. Biden voted to build 700 miles of border protection in 2006. Today he calls them useless, inhumane, and unnecessary.

Critics also say the fence is harmful to wildlife and the environment and are urging the president to use the excess cash to restore habitat.

“It’s a good thing that the construction crews are not at work right now. It’s a good thing that the bulldozers aren’t destroying the borderlands today as we speak. But we can’t breathe a sigh of relief until these construction contracts are canceled for good,” says Laiken Jordahl with the Center for Biological Diversity.

“We need to not just stop building the border wall, but actually begin restoring the land, healing the wilderness areas that have been destroyed by wall construction.”

Agents say it’s not just the wall that faces cancellation. Trump ordered a border wall ‘system’ which includes cameras, lights and underground sensors – which provide agents with “situational” awareness of the border environment. Those amenities are the last to go in, meaning taxpayers already paid for many miles of fence and materials they may never receive.

(Fox News).

Breaking week-long silence, Netanyahu calls on right-wing rivals to form next government

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Breaking week-long silence, Netanyahu calls on right-wing rivals to form next government

Netanyahu urges his right-wing rivals to ‘return home’ and ‘form a
right-wing government’.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on his right-wing political rivals on Wednesday evening to put aside their past conflicts and form a new government following the March 23 election.

While addressing the media for the first time since last week’s election, Netanyahu urged Naftali Bennett of the Yamina party and New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar to join the premier’s religious allies in cobbling together Israel’s next coalition government, which he said would command a healthy “65-seat” majority in the Knesset (Israel Parliament).

Unlike the previous three elections, Netanyahu said, “the people made their will known clearly… The public gave the right-wing parties a clear majority — of 65 seats.”

“I appeal to you Naftali Bennett and Gideon Saar,” Netanyahu continued, “it’s no secret that we’ve had differences over the years, but we’ve known how to get over them and work together for the benefit of Israel’s citizens.”

“Let’s unify together and build a stable national government… a unified, stable, right-wing government that will look after, as we always have, all the citizens of Israel,” he added.

Netanyahu’s Likud party won 30 seats following last week’s vote, far exceeding second-place finisher Yesh Atid, headed by opposition leader Yair Lapid (17).

But Sa’ar, a Likud party defector whose New Hope party earned a disappointing 6 seats in the election, has staunchly refused to sit in a government headed by Netanyahu, who is currently standing trial on a number of corruption charges. (The premier vociferously denies all wrongdoing).

Bennett, meanwhile, has said his Yamina party (7) is keeping its options open but has vowed not to sit in a government headed by the centrist Yesh Atid party.

Recent reports suggest, however, that Bennett, a former close aide of Netanyahu, is willing to agree to join forces with Lapid on the condition that he be seated first in a possible rotation deal for the premiership.

As for the Yesh Atid camp, party officials told Hebrew media sources on Wednesday that Lapid may be open to such an agreement, but stressed that the former Finance Minister must be tasked with forming the next government.

The Yesh Atid officials, according to Ynet News, fear that Bennett may simply abandon his commitments to the so-called “change bloc” – parties dedicated to ousting Netanyahu from office – and form a government with Likud if allowed to steer government talks.

“Bennett does not really want to replace Netanyahu,” the Yesh Atid officials said, adding that “he will accept the mandate [to form a government] and run away to [the prime minister].”

With Likud’s 30 seats, Netanyahu has already won pledges of support from the ultra-Orthodox Shas (9) and United Torah Judaism (7) parties, along with the far-right Religious Zionism (6) slate, leaving him with 52 seats.

(i24 News).

Archeologists ‘Stunned’ By Evidence That Medieval Jews Kept Kosher

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Archeologists ‘Stunned’ By Evidence That Medieval Jews Kept Kosher

Archeologists in the UK digging at an excavation site of ancient shops overlapping Oxford’s old Jewish quarter “were stunned” to uncover solid evidence that medieval Jews living in England prior to the 1290 expulsion ate only kosher, The Jewish Chronicle reported last week.

The excavation was carried out five years ago but the findings, which “blew away” the archeologists were only revealed now. “Normally you would expect a mixture of cow, sheep, goat and pig,” said Dr. Julie Dunne, a bio-molecular archaeologist at Bristol University who worked on the 2016 project. “Instead we found a massive, I mean massive, amount of chicken and goose bones.”

As much as the archeologists dug, they found no evidence of bones from pigs, the hindquarters of cows, shellfish, or any other non-kosher animals at the site.

Additionally, the archaeologists collected over 2,000 pottery fragments, and using organic residue analysis, identified the type of fat that had been absorbed in the 800-year-old ceramic vessels.

“This process allows us to distinguish animal fats from ruminants and non-ruminants, as well as from dairy products,” said Dr. Dunne, “and what we found was astonishingly precise.”

The fats absorbed in the vessels were also exclusively from kosher animals, with absolutely no traces of non-kosher fats or traces of mixtures of milk and meat in the same vessel.

These indications of kosher culinary habits were discovered only from the time period and area where Jews had lived in medieval England, with findings from other sites and time periods rife with evidence of non-kosher culinary practices.

It is the first solid evidence that medieval Jews in England adhered to kashrus despite the plethora of information about medieval Jews in Oxford, including preserved Jewish manuscripts, contracts, and property deeds.

Clifford’s Tower, the place where the Jews of
York were massacred in 1190. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The report added that the archeologists’ excavation of the Jewish site almost didn’t happen but a last-minute appeal by Pam Manix and Dr. Evie Kemp, members of the Oxford Jewish Heritage Committee, was approved just as commercial developers were about to gain planning permission.

“Oxford Preservation Trust got in touch just days before the last meeting,” recalled Ms. Manix, “and asked if I’d attend and raise an objection.”

“I realized at once this was an amazing opportunity. It was the first time in decades the site had been opened up and it was right on top of a property called Jacob’s Hall, which had belonged to Jacob of Oxford, one of the most important Jews in England.”

There are only three other findings that provide evidence that Jews kept kosher in medieval times, but all are on continental Europe rather than England. Additionally, according to Dr. Dunne, this is “the first time a religious dietary signature has been identified using pottery fragments.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Jews remain most targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada

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Jews remain most targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada

Statistics Canada report for 2019 finds 7% increase in police-reported hate crimes in Canada that year.

Jews have remained by far the most targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada in 2019, JNS reported on Tuesday, citing the newly released Canadian government’s annual survey of police-reported hate crimes.

The Statistics Canada report found that there were 1,946 police-reported hate crimes in Canada in 2019, up 7 percent from a year earlier.

In particular, some 608 hate crimes targeted religion, down 7 percent compared to 2018. This number, however, remains higher than those recorded before 2017, when it hit its peak at 842 incidents.

Jewish Canadians were targeted 296 times in 2019—a 20 percent decrease from 372 in 2018, the report found.

Despite the decrease, attacks on Jewish Canadians still occurred on average five times per week during 2019 with Jews comprising some 50 percent of overall religious hate crimes, Muslims at 10 percent, and Catholics and other religions at 3 percent each.

Responding to the report, Shimon Koffler Fogel, President and CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), said, “We are concerned that incidents of hate crime increased again in Canada in 2019, and exceeded the 10-year average. The 7% overall increase appears to be attributable to attacks motivated by sexual orientation and race or ethnicity.”

“Among the troubling aspects of the report is the 8% increase in violent hate crimes which now account for 44% of the total. Also troubling are the record high number of attacks motivated by sexual orientation,” he added.

“It is important to note that this is 2019 data and does not reflect the impact Covid-19 has had on our society. That data is not yet available, but Statistics Canada does cite a crowdsourcing survey that suggests that 2020 will see a significant increase in hate crimes targeting visible minorities, particularly Canadians of Asian ethnicity.”

“Though we welcome the 20% decrease in crimes targeting the Jewish community, Jewish Canadians still remain the most targeted religious minority for hate crime and second overall. Jewish Canadians were targeted 296 times in 2019. Even with a 20% year over year decrease, attacks on Jewish Canadians still occurred on average five times per week during 2019. Those numbers are particularly troubling since the Jewish community accounts for only 1% of the population and yet are the targets of 17% of police-reported hate crime,” said Koffler Fogel.

“Although Canada remains one of the best countries in the world in which to be Jewish, or any other minority for that matter, these numbers are troubling and should concern all Canadians of good will,” he concluded.

Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise in Canada in recent years. In 2019, the League for Human Rights, part of B’nai Brith Canada, recorded 2,207 anti-Semitic incidents.

Tuesday’s report comes days after Toronto Police launched an investigation after a bus shelter in Toronto was vandalized with a poster promoting anti-Semitic blood libel on the eve of Passover.

Last May, a swastika and the words “all heil Hitler” were found drawn in chalk on a Toronto school located in an area with a large Jewish population.

Last April, a spate of anti-Semitic graffiti in the downtown Toronto area appeared to blame the COVID-19 pandemic on “the Jews.”

(Arutz 7).

 

China and Iran ink strategic 25-year deal

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China and Iran ink strategic 25-year deal

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said the deal “can elevate bilateral ties to a new strategic level.”

Iran and China’s 25-year strategic cooperation agreement inked on March 27 will provide Iran billions in Chinese investment in return for Iranian oil.

The agreement, or “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” covers economic activities ranging from oil to agriculture. Iran will also gain access to Chinese military technology.

According to The New York Times, the deal calls for China to invest $400 billion in Iran over the 25-year period.

“The deal marked the first time Iran has signed such a lengthy agreement with a major world power,” the Associated Press reports, surpassing one signed by Iran and Russia in 2001.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Friday that the deal is “deep, multi-layer[ed] and full-fledged” and “can elevate bilateral ties to a new strategic level.”

It was signed by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. Before the signing, Yi met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and special Iranian envoy in charge of the deal Ali Larijani.

Critics say the new partnership will become an end run around U.S. sanctions, as Iran has now established a long-term oil buyer. If Iran once more becomes flush with cash it can increase its support to its terror proxies in the region.

The deal also strengthens China’s presence in the Middle East, “which it wants for access to energy and raw materials as well as to increase its economic sway,” a Wall Street Journal editorial notes on Tuesday.

The geopolitical ramifications may go beyond the Middle East.

The Journal says, “The countries will also form a Chinese-Iranian bank with the aim of evading the U.S. dollar dominance in world trade that gives U.S. sanctions their bite.

“Breaking the dollar’s hold on global trade and finance is a major goal of Russia, China and Iran. China believes that U.S. fiscal profligacy is putting the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency at risk, and they want the Chinese yuan to replace it.”

Others have downplayed the agreement. A Bloomberg op-ed says, “For all the Iranian hype, the deal is not so much a ‘partnership’ as a promissory note espousing better economic, political and trade relations between the two countries over the next quarter-century.”

It also claims that on agreements important to China, President Xi Jinping signs the deal, not his foreign minister.

The Journal says of those who want to dismiss the deal, “Don’t believe them. This is a big deal that advances the strategic interests of both sides — at the expense of the U.S. and stability in the Middle East.”

(World Israel News).

 

New Iron Dome upgrade latest arrow in Israel’s defense quiver

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New Iron Dome upgrade latest arrow in Israel’s defense quiver

Upgrades include the ability to knock out threats at higher and lower altitudes, and to strike larger numbers of incoming rockets – a key capability in view of terror armies’ plans to “saturate” Israel’s air defenses.

The announcement by the Israeli Defense Ministry earlier this month of successful trials of an upgraded version of the Iron Dome air-defense system represents the latest step in a lengthy arms race.

The current upgrade program has seen live-fire trials every few months, designed to test out how the improvements work in practice. This is the third installment of the current initiative to boost Iron Dome’s performance.

The work is being led by Rafael, Iron Dome’s prime contractor, and the Israel Missile Defense Organization, the agency within the Defense Ministry that is responsible for evolving Israel’s multi-layer air-defense system in response to changing enemy capabilities.

For security reasons, few specifics were given about the upgrades themselves with the Defense Ministry merely confirming that the tests “demonstrated a significant upgrade of the system’s technological capabilities,” and that “Iron Dome was tested in a range of complex scenarios and successfully intercepted and destroyed targets simulating existing and emerging threats, including the simultaneous interception of multiple UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], as well as a salvo of rockets and missiles.”

The trials were held in southern Israel with the participation of the Israel Air Force’s Air Defense Array personnel—the latest indication of the fact that the IAF takes an active part in the development of Iron Dome, rather than just receiving a final product and then giving feedback about it to engineers.

“The new version of the Iron Dome system will be delivered to the IAF and the Navy for operational use and will strengthen Israel’s multi-tier missile defense capabilities,” said the Defense Ministry.

The mention of the Navy is a reference to the sea-based version of Iron Dome, known as “C-Dome,” which will be used on-board Israel’s new Sa’ar 6 missile ships to protect offshore gas rigs. These are strategic sites in Israel’s economic waters that adversaries like Hezbollah and Hamas would likely target in a future conflict.

In view of the fact that some 70 percent of Israel’s electricity supply now depends on natural gas, defending the rigs is a top national priority, and Iron Dome has a big part to play in this defense.

‘Significant leap forward in technological capabilities’

A general sense of improvements being made to Iron Dome is discernable in recent comments to JNS by Brig. Gen. (ret.) Shachar Shohat, Rafael vice president and marketing and business development manager of the company’s Air and Missile Defense Division.

Shohat noted in February that a decade had passed since Iron Dome’s first revolutionary interception of a Gazan rocket heading towards an Israeli built-up area in 2011. Ten years and more than 2,500 interceptions later, Iron Dome’s interception rate surpasses 90 percent, while the system itself has undergone so many changes that it’s not the same as it was in 2011.

Upgrades include the ability to knock out threats at higher altitudes and lower altitudes, and to strike larger numbers of incoming rockets—a key capability in light of intentions by terror armies like Hamas and Hezbollah to “saturate” Israel’s air defenses and overwhelm them, trying to punch through them.

The Iron Dome of 2021 can protect not only cities but also vital strategic sites. In addition to rockets and mortars, it is designed to now take on drones and cruise missiles. The latter have low-altitude flight paths unlike the rainbow-shaped trajectories of ballistic rockets.

Rafael is the prime contractor and the developer of the Tamir interceptor, while the system’s advanced radar is developed by Israel Aerospace Industries–ELTA. Iron Dome’s, and the command and control system, is developed by mPrest.

The interface between operators and the system—designed to make it relatively straightforward to use—is also undergoing regular upgrades.

The head of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, Moshe Patel, alluded to these changes when he stated, “Thirty years after the First Gulf War, which led to the establishment of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, and 10 years after the Iron Dome’s first operational interception, we have achieved a significant leap forward in the technological capabilities of the Iron Dome system.”

“In the three test campaigns conducted in the last few months, the Iron Dome system demonstrated outstanding capabilities against evolving threats, including successfully intercepting salvos of rockets and missiles as well as intercepting multiple UAVs simultaneously.”

It’s also important to note the significant American financial assistance that goes towards the production of Iron Dome batteries, helping Israel to position sufficient numbers of them to deal with multiple fronts at the same time.

In August, the U.S. House of Representatives greenlighted $500 million for missile-defense assistance to Israel, which includes $73 million for Iron Dome batteries.

(JNS).

US State Department human-rights report returns to using ‘occupied’ territories

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US State Department human-rights report returns to using ‘occupied’ territories

But the language “is not meant to convey a position on any final-status issues to be negotiated between the parties to the conflict.”

The Biden administration returned to using the term “occupied” when referring to the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem in its annual human-rights report issued by the U.S. State Department.

Under the Trump administration, the State Department dropped the term “occupied” when referring to these territories and removed the Golan Heights from the 2018 and 2019 reports after the United States recognized Israeli sovereignty there.

That section of the report covers Israel “within the 1949 Armistice Agreement line, as well as Golan Heights and East Jerusalem territories that Israel occupied during the June 1967 war and where it later extended its domestic law, jurisdiction and administration.”

The State Department claims, however, that the language “is not meant to convey a position on any final-status issues to be negotiated between the parties to the conflict, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the borders between Israel and any future Palestinian state.” [Ed.: if this is true, and language is
not meant to convey the US’s position, why the name change altogether?]

The report did acknowledge Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, as well as Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019. The title also remained the same: “Israel, West Bank and Gaza.” Prior to the Trump administration, the report had used “Israel and the Occupied Territories.”

Speaking on the decision to keep the title, acting State Department official on human rights Lisa Peterson said its authors continued to believe that it was better to assign specific geographic names.

“That’s in line with our practices generally. We also believe it is clearer and more useful for readers seeking information on human rights in those specific areas,” she told reporters.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said America would no longer consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal, breaking with prior policy and with many in the international community.

Israel gained control of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.

(JNS).

How Egypt’s Suez debacle could make Israel a fortune

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How Egypt’s Suez debacle could make Israel a fortune

Could Israel benefit from a stuck container ship in the Suez Canal?

Israel’s Globes reports on Sunday that Egypt’s embarrassing escapade with the Ever Given, the Empire State Building-sized container ship that ran aground on March 23, could end up as a “major catalyst” for Israel to pursue “Suez Canal bypass” projects, which have been on the back burner due to their high cost.

One recently in the news is the project to transport oil from the United Arab Emirates to Europe via an old pipeline once used to transport Iranian oil from Eilat to Ashkelon. The pipeline is owned and operated by the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company (EAPC).

Eilat is on the Red Sea and Ashkelon is on the Mediterranean. Oil tankers would offload in Eilat, the oil would be transferred via the pipeline to Ashkelon and loaded back onto tankers that would transport the oil to Europe. The Suez Canal would be cut out of the picture.

Eilat Oil Port can accommodate tankers with up to 350,000 dead weight tonnage (dwt) and the Ashkelon Oil Port up to 250,000 dwt.

Globes reports that while a contract was signed in Dubai regarding the project in October 2020, shortly after the Abraham Accords, no money has been allocated yet.

According to Reuters, “A source familiar with the deal said that, if finalized, it could be worth $700-$800 million over several years, and that supplies could start soon – at the beginning of 2022.”

Other projects include the construction of rail lines from Gulf States to the Mediterranean. One would pass through Jordan and connect up with the Saudi railway system. Another idea is a railway between the Mediterranean port of Ashdod and Eilat.

All project costs are estimated in the billions of dollars.

Israel isn’t the only country looking at ways to capture business from the Suez Canal. One avenue is courtesy of global warming, which has made the Arctic a viable passageway.

“The Arctic is now open for business year-round after a large commercial ship sailed the Northern Sea Route from Jiangsu, China, to a Russian gas plant on the Arctic coast, for the first time ever during the month of February, when winter temperatures normally make the icy waterway impassable,” Vox reported in February.

And China has a direct freight railway running from Yiwu to London, a distance of 7,500 miles. The route was opened in January 2017.

(World Israel News).

 

Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz – Pesach Sheini

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Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz – Pesach Sheini

Operation Inspiration

“I need a Pesach article,” an editor said to me a few weeks before Pesach. “Do you have one you can send me?” Under normal circumstances I might just go to the archives and find something that hasn’t seen the light of day in a couple years, but after the events of this past year, I felt it wouldn’t do it justice.

I looked back at Pesach 5780 (that’s 2020 in case you weren’t sure) and thought about what it was like. Sequestered in our homes with only our closest family, feeling the chill of death swirling around outside our homes, focusing on Hashem and His protection, and unsure of what the next moment might bring, it seemed to evoke emotions they must have felt on the Pesach of Mitzrayim.

That would make this year analogous to the second Pesach. Not the Pesach Sheini in Iyar for those who couldn’t fulfill Pesach at the regular time, but the one the Jews celebrated the second year of the Exodus, on the anniversary of Yetzias Mitzrayim. The actual mitzvah of the Pesach was for the year in Egypt, and then again once we were in Eretz Yisrael. That second year we were in a sort of limbo state. We were not still slaves in Egypt, yet we had not come to The Promised Land and settled in Eretz Yisrael. It was a more transitory existence, living day by day, eating the mon Hashem gave us, traveling when He said to travel and stopping when He said to stop.

Last Pesach many of us were sure that Moshiach was going to reveal himself any moment. We felt the tumultuous events were a build-up to the climactic Redemption of Klal Yisrael. And then, we waited. Nothing happened. Infection rates came down, people ventured out while not going back to what they knew, and then infection rates went up, and people didn’t know what to do. We kept waiting for guidance from Hashem, the CDC, and the government, unsure of what was happening. And we’re still in that limbo.

In some areas people are braver or more reckless than others, many have found themselves on the “other side” of the virus due to having had it, or the vaccine, or both. But we’re not in the clear and we’re not seeing the freedom we’d expected so strongly last Pesach. So I started to think about that Pesach in the desert and hoped to find some message in it for us. We had a major “reset” last year, and now we’re on to the next stage. Do we simply go on looking for a place to celebrate Pesach at a hotel where it won’t be a problem to be in groups? Do we scale back our typical plans and have a cozier Pesach experience with our families? Or do we try to go back to a somewhat “normal” gathering with the people that we’re comfortable with?

Well, let’s imagine that first Pesach Anniversary. We were in the desert, eating mon. As far as I know, mon is not chometz, so that would make cleaning for Pesach much easier. Besides, even if you dropped some crumbs the night of the 14th, they’d be gone by the morning and you’d be in the clear! I imagine the Ananei HaKavod had some sort of spiritual Roomba effect which would vacuum out pockets and make the chometz search easier.

OK, maybe they had to make matza, so somewhere someone took an old schoolbus, turned it into a matza oven, and printed up labels that said, “86 Shekel/pound.” They hired a bunch of old Hungarian women to work in the schoolbus, and that part was taken care of.

Figure this all took like two days. But what was the point of this Pesach? They were not slaves, nor were they B’nai Chorin. But it was important for them to tell the story to their children, from those who had seen the actual Pesach in Mitzrayim and could now relate to their children the difference between where they had been and where they were now. They were able to take stock of what had been important in their lives the year or years previous, and compare it to what was important now.

Then they were concerned with making bricks, earning their keep and their physical wellbeing. The following year, they were living their lives one day at a time as Hashem directed them, studying Torah and growing closer to Hashem.

In fact, the commandment to offer the Pesach in the desert came just before the Mishkan was erected and Hashem’s Shechina would rest upon it. This command was intended to let them know that even though they’d sinned with the golden calf, Hashem wanted our closeness, even if He wasn’t ready to take us into Eretz Yisrael.

I feel that maybe that’s what this coming Pesach should be about. Recognizing that we’re on a journey to where we need to be, but the place where we were focused on the physical and the materialistic was so last year. Hopefully, by the time this is published, we WILL be in Eretz Yisrael with the Bais HaMikdash and actual korbanos. But if not, I’d like to think that at least we’ve started journeying in the right direction.

 

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