About a week before Pesach (Passover), and against the backdrop of the war against Iran, Miriam Peretz sought to convey a message of faith and hope.
In an interview with Benny Teitelbaum on Kan Moreshet, Peretz speaks about running to shelters in the middle of the night, which she emphasizes has one goal - to live.
“We are in the month of Nisan - a month of miracles," she said. Despite the challenges, she noted that the Israeli people display remarkable inner resilience: “There is difficulty, but we are a people who do not lose hope. It’s in our DNA, and a person who loses hope has no strength to get up and run."
Peretz added that she finds comfort in the human encounters within protected spaces, where mutual responsibility and solidarity are revealed.
She compared the current reality to the natural renewal of Nisan: “We are seeing trees that seemed dead - and suddenly they are blooming. So too with us - we must learn to see the good within a complex reality."
She added that despite the pain over those injured, one must look at the bigger picture as a great miracle of survival: “Look at the broader picture - it is a great miracle. Yes, there are casualties, but there is also great salvation. We must follow the instructions carefully - and believe that things will be good."
Regarding the approaching Seder night, Peretz said she is not concerned about possible disruptions: “Even during Covid, we had different Seders. There may be a siren - we will get up and come back to the table. We will sing, we will dance, and we will sing: ‘In every generation, they rise up to destroy us.’"
She stressed that educational and value-based dilemmas must be kept in proportion, because what matters most is that the children are alive: “We will tell them the story of our reality - but we will also leave them with joy and faith. The children are at home, the parents are exhausted, and Zoom doesn’t always work. We need to find activities for them - go out when possible, meet, learn together. Studies can be made up. Homes can be renovated. There is one thing that cannot be restored - those who have fallen. Our children are alive - and that is what matters most."
Peretz concluded with an image from the Haggadah: “The afikoman is the broken piece of matzah that we hide - yet from it, we create wholeness." She expressed confidence that the people of Israel will succeed in piecing the fragments together and building a sense of completeness, adding that the Seder night will be “full of life."
“It will be a beautiful Seder. It might be crowded, there might be sirens. But it will be full of life. We will eat, rejoice, and the children will find the afikoman. We will always find a way to piece together the broken parts."