"All Who Are in Need…" A Place for Gilad Shalit at Your Seder…
ְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָיב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַים הגדה של פסח
In each and every generation, a person is obligated to see themselves as if they personally came out of Egypt. The Passover Haggadah
Each and every Passover, families gather throughout the Jewish world to recapture an ancient memory of the darkness of slavery and the great light of freedom. For one family in Israel, this Passover will be a reminder that slavery is not just a memory, that captivity is not just a far away story. For the Shalit family, as long as Gilad remains a prisoner of the Hamas, the Passover story will be only half a story, a painful reminder that freedom is yet to be achieved.
On June 25 2006, Hamas captured then Corporal Gilad Shalit of the Israel Defense Forces Armor Corps. For nearly three years, his family and all of Israel await his return home.
Maimonides – Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon (Rambam) – defined the redemption of captives as a commandment that surpassed even feeding and clothing the poor:
We cannot be truly free until Gilad is free.