According to the Zohar, Passover is the period of time when Techiyat HaMetim – the resurrection of the dead – will take place. But by the time this day arrives, we must strive to turn each Passover into a mini Techiyat HaMetim – Passover is a privileged moment when to awaken our sleeping souls so as to realize who we are, what we are, and define our responsibilities as Goy Kadosh – a holy nation, as Mamlechet Kohanim – a kingdom of priests.

But Passover passed… we celebrated a beautiful holiday with our families, we enjoyed many culinary delights that go with the holiday, but unfortunately, our soul has remained unchanged and dormant and the spiritual awakening has not occurred yet.

If we were to define a time in history when it has been crucial to awakening our souls to the challenges of the day, it would be today. Our generation lives in the grim shadow of the Holocaust, and once again we are witnessing a sharp rise in anti-semitism all over the world and vicious and irrational hatred of Israel. The evil specter of terrorism is latent everywhere, especially in Eretz Israel.

Once again, there is no safe place for Jews. Add to this the resurgence of assimilation, the ever-increasing rate of mixed marriages, and total breakdown of morality in our societies, and you cannot help but tremble with fear. It is time to wake up, but alas, we stay asleep.

As you know, I am from Hungary and I am a survivor of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Hungary was one of the last countries the Nazis invaded, but even before the occupation, our people were going through a difficult period. Hatred and persecution of Jews were omnipresent and considered politically correct. In the first years of the war, before deportation started, the Hungarian authorities enlisted all the young Jewish men to make them do slave-work.

My husband, Rav Meshulem Halevi Jungreis, z”l, often described to me the terrible darkness that fell over their home when his older brother, Yosef Dov – may G.d avenge his blood – whose wife was expecting their first child, was taken by the Hungarian Gestapo.

From that moment on, my mother-in-law, the revered Chaya Sora of Gyongyos, who was later killed at Auschwitz Al Kiddush Hashem – may G.d avenge her blood, refused to lie down in bed. Night after night, she would sit in her chair with a Sefer Tehillim (Book of Psalms), with tears running down her cheeks and falling on the holy letters. In the end, she would fall asleep in total exhaustion, waking up shortly afterward and continuing to sob quietly in the middle of her prayer.

My husband, who was the youngest of the family, was still at home and gently said: “Mom, you should lie down and try to sleep.” And my mother-in-law replied: “How can I possibly sleep if Yosef Dov is not here? How can I lie down in my bed?”

Using her words: “How can we possibly sleep while this tragedy unfolds around us? How can we lie comfortably in our bed, sleep and remain insensitive to the pain and suffering of our people in Israel and in the world?”

« But what can we do? », shall you ask…

Condoleezza Rice, as part of the September 11th commission, rightly said that the US administration had no magic solution to get out of this tragedy – and she was right. There was and there is no miracle cure that could have solved this tragedy, but we, the Jewish people, have a silver bullet in our arsenal. We just have to resort to it. The tragedy, however, is that we are not even aware of our treasure. Our hearts and souls are asleep and we are deaf to G.d’s imprecations: “Lu Ami Shomea Li… If only My people would hearken to Me if Israel would go in My ways. In a short time, I would subdue their enemies and upon their enemies, I would return My hand.” (Psalm 81)

It is incomprehensible that we who have endured so much, we who know from experience that it is futile to place our faith in men, wealth, power or intellectual prowess, we would turn to these same forces to save us. It is as if history had not taught us anything. What a tragedy! G.d Himself offered us a miracle solution, but we live our little lives ignoring this tremendous gift.

We should integrate and apply to our lives the simple lesson of Esther and Mordechai, when, within one night, darkness turned into light, terror into peace, and tragedy into joy and happiness, and all this, because Esther and Mordechai had used this silver bullet: “Lech Knos… Go and gather all of the Jews”, as Esther asked, “and ask them to turn to G.d and repent.”

We also fail to remember the miracle cure our ancestors resorted to in ancient Egypt. Indeed, we actually echo those words during the Seder: “Vanitsak El Hashem... And we called G.d, the G.d of our fathers, and He heard our voice.” We are used to reading the words of the Haggadah, but how many of us truly believe that turning to G.d, the G.d of our ancestors, through prayer, is our true miracle solution?

So how can we bring about this mini-resurrection of the dead? How can we awaken our souls to “Ata Bechartanu…You chose us from all the nations”? Which, in the end, is the very essence of Passover.

The authors of the Haggadah have shown us the way. They gave us fifteen Dayenu, rather than a general superficial thank you. Deep wisdom is hidden behind this: a generic thank you have little meaning. For example, when a Bar Mitzvah boy says: “And now I’d like to thank my parents,” what meaning do these words really convey? If we are honest, not much.

But if the boy expressed his gratitude, saying: “I’d like to thank my mom for sitting by my bedside entire nights when I was sick… I’d like to thank my dad for his infinite patience and kindness when he helped me with my homework and I did not understand…”, if this Bar Mitzvah boy wrote fifteen expressions of thanks, the way he appreciates and loves his parents would increase a thousandfold.

Number fifteen has many mystical implications, which I cannot develop here. Anyway, the first step towards appreciation is contained in “Ata Bachartanu… You chose us…” and consists in Hakarat Hatov – gratitude for the immense privilege we were granted, that of belonging to the chosen people of Hashem…

So it is true that we can witness terrible suffering and barbaric evil, perpetrated by the descendants of Ishmael who project to annihilate us, often with the consent of nations sharing similar ideas, but we also are the witnesses of G.d’s miracles.

We are the generation that was chosen to witness the beginning of Deliverance, the return of our people to our ancient land after almost two thousand years. We are the generation that has witnessed the beginning of the gathering of the exiles, the recovery of our ancient land. There is no comparable event in the annals of humanity. This miracle is an obvious manifestation of G.d’s Hand, but we must shake our minds in order to integrate it.

Israel obviously continues to be subject to savage attacks, still, let us remember that the Almighty has allowed us to thwart many of their most horrible plans. If G.d had not offered us His protection, we would have perished a long time ago, because we are a lamb among seventy wolves determined to devour us.

Finally, we are the generation that suffers the terrible ravages of assimilation – but we are also the generation that can witness the extraordinary movement of Baalei Teshuva. If I had time, I would tell you thousands of stories from our Hineni organization, stories of Jews rediscovering their heritage and returning to Hashem.

The light of G.d penetrates through the veil of darkness. If only we wanted to see, if only we wanted to understand... Every day, G.d enjoins us to wake up and grasp our miracle cure. Everything is in our hands. How can we possibly stay asleep?