Today is Monday, April 6th, the third day of Chol MaMoed Pesach.

Throughout the first two days of Chag Pesach, many of us living in the United States celebrated and observed the Chag with mixed emotions.

The feelings which many of us experienced during these two days (really three days including Shabbat), were a combination of joy and celebration with a significant dose of guarded concern, worry and trepidation.

For many of us who are shomrei Shabbat (Sabbath observers), we were unable to hear or see real-time news from Israel regarding the war, except for bits and pieces from those who heard the news from other sources in our community.

This feeling of frustration was even more pronounced for many of us with children, grandchildren and family living or visiting Israel. To be sure, this matzav struck a very deep chord for me personally. My granddaughter together with many other seminary students studying in Israel needed to spend Chag Pesach in Israel due to flight cancellations to the States.

As a result, she and her friends were fortunate Baruch HaShem to join other American families and friends for the two days of Pesach sedarim. It could have been worse God forbid.

As we follow the news from Israel, we hear mixed reports. Some officials say the war will end in several days; others say weeks or months. In the interim, Iranian missiles and drones continue to rain down on Israeli population centers and our IDF troops in Lebanon continue to engage Hezbollah in a relentless ground offensive.  All the while, Washington issues deadline after deadline only to be extended again and again in order to either cut a new deal with Iran or to call the regime’s bluff. ........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)