Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich is a former Prisoner of Zion who was in the Gulag during the period of the USSR.
A few days remained before Passover. I was in a Soviet prison for the most dangerous security prisoners - already almost ten years. In my cell with me was Hillel Butman, of blessed memory, a comrade in our attempt to hijack a plane to freedom. In the spare moments I had between work shifts I gathered some provisions for the Passover Seder. I had a few pieces of matzah that my sister had sent me and which the KGB allowed to pass through prison customs. Also a handful of dried raisins for the four cups. I very much wanted to obtain karpas. Where could I find even a small green leaf?
And suddenly… they took us out to the exercise yard, a small courtyard on the roof of the prison. On the way to the “yard," I saw a tiny leaf growing sticking out from the stones and concrete of the roof. I followed its growth day by day. The small leaf broke through the concrete, as if striving to reach the light of the sun. I said to myself, here, this yearning for light is a symbol of Redemption. I will have karpas!
On the eve of Passover I ran to that leaf and picked it. The guard was furious. He screamed out: “A security violation, an escape attempt!" I told him that this plant has wonderful medicinal qualities. He softened. “All right, take it."
I wrote the Passover Haggadah in advance on a sheet of paper.
I made the Seder plate from a page of the communist newspaper Pravda (“Truth").
We sat, Hillel and I, for the Passover meal. At the end he said to me: “For the first time in my life, I had a proper Passover Seder."
Perhaps one needs to sit in a security prison to truly feel the Festival of Freedom.
The next day, Hillel Butman and all the prisoners from the plane hijacking were released from prison and all made aliyah to the Land of Israel. Surely it was in the merit of that Passover Seder.
I remained in prison for another two years.