Follow ChabadInfo & Never Miss an Update!

Follow us on Instagram Subscribe to our WhatsApp status and broadcast Follow us on Tiktok Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on Google News Subscribe on YouTube

Some 190 Jewish women and children who returned to the Jewish people this year after living for an extended period in Arab villages will be celebrating Pesach in accordance with Halacha.

“These are women and children who endured a violent, destructive way of life in the Arab villages before being rescued, with G-d’s help, and returned to Am Yisrael,” said a Yad L’Achim official. “They are joining hundreds of others who’ve been rescued in recent years and who remain in constant touch with our dedicated staffers.”

As part of their rehabilitation, the women attended four separate conferences organized by Yad L’Achim in Yerushalayim, the center of the country, the north and south, to learn how to celebrate the holiday after having been cut off from the Jewish people for so many years.

They heard from Rabbanit A. Salomon about the significance of Pesach and the seder night, and mainly messages of the holiday that we take with us into the year. “Pesach teaches us to skip over and to distance ourselves from chametz,” the Rabbanit explained. “It is forbidden for us to sink into despair, to dwell on lost opportunities and on how much we could have accomplished. We must find the strength inside of us to skip over these issues and proceed toward redemption.”

The yearning for complete Geula that is so much a part of the month of Nissan was palbable in these meetings.

Participants received an “instruction manual” for the holiday, compiled by Yad L’Achim rabbis on the assumption that these women will be celebrating their first Pesach in a long time. In addition to the regular laws of the holiday, the manual offers important information on Pesach kashrus, how to prepare the items needed for the seder plate, tips on what things need cleaning, including how to clean the fridge, the oven, the microwave, and more.

 The manual also includes a calendar that delineates which days are Yom Tov and which are chol hamo’ed, and what is permitted on each.

Each participant received an exquisite Haggadah and decorative ones for the children, as well as hand-made matzos, a package of kosher-for-Pesach food and coupons for clothing and food, good at a variety of stores around the country.

“The Kimcha D’Pischa we provided at the conferences – in the form of coupons and holiday gifts – cost hundreds of thousands of shekels,” a Yad L’Achim official said. “This effort was made so that they will be able to celebrate the holiday like truly free people.”

Yad L’Achim stresses that additional holiday kits and coupons were delivered to the safe homes of dozens of women who, for security reasons, were unable to attend the events. Moreover, dozens of other mothers and children were hosted for the seder by mentor-families arranged by Yad L’Achim.

“Pesach, which symbolizes for all of us the exodus of the Jewish people from slavery to freedom, for these heroic women celebrates their personal freedom,”  noted one Yad L’Achim official. “It marks their exodus from captivity and suffering to freedom and redemption.

“For most of the women, this is the first Pesach they will be celebrating in many years, and for their children it will be their first Pesach ever.

“The moving feedback we’ve received shows us to what extent the constant follow-up and assistance we provide – long after the rescue – has been instrumental in putting the women and their children on their feet.

“The Kimcha D’Pischa project is another step on the long road to rehabilitation for these women, a step that will help them acclimate, and open a new chapter in their lives as members of Am Yisrael.”

40