A Time for Miracles

My great-grandfather, Zaidy (grandpa in Yiddish) Peretz, came to America in the 1880s and established our American family. Zaidy made a good choice for us. In this land of freedom  there were no  pogroms.

Passover was the time my family held its annual get-together. My American born family members would meet, exchange greetings and hold a grand festive Passover meal. We considered our lives very blessed.

However my European born Jewish classmate, Miklosh, was not so fortunate. He considered Passover a time of sadness and anxiety. During World War II, Miklosh lost his family. No parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts were left. In general, he lost over 100 members of his immediate family. When the Passover holiday came, he remembered his martyred family.

Once in school I naively asked him, "What does April remind you of?"  I expected to hear him answer, "Spring," or "Passover."  He answered, "The liberation of the concentration camp." This was where he had been incarcerated.

Whenever Passover came around I wondered what happened to Miklosh and if he got anywhere with his life. I felt that only a miracle would get him to overcome his tormented past.

Recently, I received a phone call from my old schoolmate, Miklosh. He did have a miracle happen. After finishing school he found his cousin, a holocaust survivor, and married her. He now had a wonderful family and a great income. We spoke about our past school days. He related that he had learned to deal with his past and to look ahead towards making his life work. The greatest news was that he was going to attend a seder, a Passover meal, with six grandchildren.

Now, that was a modern day miracle worthy of a festive meal.

Last month another holocaust survivor, Berel, contacted me. He needed hand-baked matzoh for Passover. Berel was a survivor of labor and concentration camps and had spent almost seven years in a living Hell. He lost his entire family. After the war he remarried and moved to the USA. There he started a new life for himself. Initially he thought that he would not be able to live with the pain of losing his beloved family, but with God's help he was successful in rebuilding his life. 

Now, 50 years later, Berel's bonafide concerns were about the future of his American children, and grandchildren. Berel and Miklosh had both  made the transition from dwelling on the past to caring for the future.

The Passover celebration marks the liberation of the Jewish people from Egyptian bondage, but it also commemorates liberation from all oppression and persecution. It was instituted by God to show us how to move ahead and to count our blessings. 

Many contemporary Jewish people, have gone through experiences as tragic and terrifying as any previous generation. On Passover they, and all of us, take hope that the 3,306 year miracle will keep on working. In the interim, I know of Miklosh and Berel who already have their Passover miracles.

Just as Zaidy said, "We Jews don't believe in miracles, we just count on them!"