On Tuesday, April 7th, Donald Trump published a post on social media saying that if Iran failed to reopen the Straight of Hormuz immediately “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

The 7th day of Pesach began at sundown on April 7th. During that night hundreds of missiles were fired from Iran into Israel. 

In Zichron Ya’akov we were ripped from sleep by the critical alert just before 3 AM. We stumbled through the now-familiar routine of putting on enough clothes to be decent and stuffing our laptops into the backpack that sits in readiness by the door. In Zichron, when sirens confirming an imminent missile attack follow the critical alert, the allotted time to reach the safe room is 90 seconds, so being ready could be the difference between life and death.

While waiting to see if the safe room is necessary, we usually distract ourselves on our iPhones, checking news sources for updates, doom-scrolling on social media (not recommended), playing games, or checking emails. I had received an email from a colleague back in the US referencing Trump’s threat and asking for my perspective as someone who might be experiencing some of the likely results. 

After about 20 minutes of waiting, we were notified that the “event” had ended and so we got back in bed, hoping for at least a few hours of sleep. I am the type of person whose mind, once intrigued by something, needs to wrestle with existential questions, create mental drafts of emails or blog posts, and generally ponder the meaning of life. It often takes me several hours to get back to sleep.

The mixture of Trump (a real-life, belligerent, narcissistic, wannabe king), the current government in Israel (authoritarian, fascist, untrustworthy), with the Passover story during a time when Jews are once again (still?) fighting to survive, provided more than enough material for my brain to stay awake for hours.

Trump’s gloating, threatening rhetoric celebrating violence and destruction is disgusting. So is that of Ben Gvir and his cronies gleefully celebrating after the recent passage of their death penalty legislation and their capitulation to religious fanatics who feed from the public coffers, while refusing to make the sacrifices that are (or should be) required of all Israeli citizens. 

But acknowledging that their behavior is disgusting does not automatically lead to any definitive conclusion as to whether the decisions or events they are “celebrating” are either good or bad. That conclusion has to stand on its own merits. I am against the death penalty, but even if I were in favor, celebrating it would be disgusting. 

In the Passover story we stand terrified – a multitude of newly liberated slaves – between the raging sea and the menacing sounds of Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit. Although he let them go, Pharaoh, like all tyrants, makes promises that he has no intention of keeping and he now intends to slaughter them all. 

A miracle provides safe passage through the waters for the fleeing slaves, and another miracle drowns Pharaoh’s army. According to Midrash, when the angels saw that the army had been defeated, they were about to burst into songs of joy and praise. God rebuked them, saying “my creatures are dying, and you want to sing songs of joy…?” 

It is clear that God does not want us to celebrate the suffering and death of anyone (even our enemies). At the Passover Seder, when we recite the plagues that were visited upon Egypt, we spill a drop of wine for each plague as a reminder that we should not revel in the suffering of our enemies.

But here is the question, unanswered in the traditional story. Was there any other way to deal with Pharaoh’s army? Should Moses have drafted a ceasefire proposal and encouraged his followers to “give peace a chance?” Should he have offered Pharaoh compensation for the loss of manpower he needed to make all those bricks? If reason and compromise didn’t work, should the Hebrews have chosen a pacifist approach and refused to kill those who clearly wanted to kill them? Now in this similar time of life-threatening danger, how do we make peace with people who have made it clear that the only peace they will grant us is the peace of death?

(c)2026marthahurwitz