Using the Term, "Cease Fire" Loosely In This War

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

The holiday of Shavuot, which marks the beginning of the 1. wheat harvest as well as 2. the anniversary of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, began last Thursday, May 21, 2026. . May we be blessed with health, success and peace. Chag Sameach!  With all the wars enveloping Israel one way or another, such a holiday can get forgotten.  Just what's been going on?                           

 First in line came the Torah, which means "teaching", "law," "the Written  Law." This law was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai together with a detailed oral exposition of the Torah and its commandments.  It includes the entire talmudic literature and commentaries. Yet, once we are freed from the bondage of slavery, we are not fully prepared to stand up as free people.  Rather, we need to undergo a transformative process to spiritually and psychologically prepare and cleanse ourselves. Once we have fully come into our liberated state, we are ready to receive the Torah on Shavout — true wisdom, the divine word, direct experience of revelation. 

According to the biblical narrative, Moses was 80 years old when he led the Israelites out of Egypt and received the Torah (including the Ten Commandments) at Mount Sinai. His life is traditionally divided into three distinct 40-year periods: Age 0 to 40: Raised as a prince in the royal court of Pharaoh.Age 40 to 80: Lived as a shepherd in the land of Midian.  Age 80 to 120: Led the Israelites through the wilderness, received the Torah, and guided the people until his death at the age of 120. At my age of almost 92 today, 80 seems to me like a young kid.  Yes, he could have done it and could have felt he was full of such knowledge. 

Harvest Festivals in Biblical days such as in Eretz Yisrael (later-Palestine) began immediately after Passover in April or May, especially in the Jordan Valley.  In the coastal plain and hill regions, it continued throughout the summer. 

 First came the gathering-in of barley and wheat, followed by olives and the vintage.  There were 3 harvest-festivals:  the Omer festival when the  barley-flour offering was brought to the Temple (Passover) and the counting of 50 days (counting the Omer) ; Counting the Omer is a Jewish commandment to verbally count the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot. The practice begins on the second night of Passover and ends the night before Shavuot, linking the physical Exodus from Egypt to the spiritual giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

the first-fruit (Bikkurim) festival 7 weeks later when the wheat ripened (Feast of Weeks);  and the feast of the ingathering (Asiph) marking the end of the entire harvest (Tabernacles).  

Agricultural significance of the festivals has been re-emphasized in modern Israel by special observances, especially in small villages.  

                         Giving the law on Mt. Sinai

In Temple times, they brought 2 loaves to the priests and the offering of first fruits.  After the Temple was destroyed, the tradition was emphasized that Shavuot commemorated the giving of the law on Mt Sinai on Sivan 6 (day of harvesting wheat).  

From the 16th century on, kabbalists have observed the eve of Shavuot by studying from the Torah.  The Book of Ruth, which mentions the barley and wheat harvests, is read in the synagogues on this time.  

 I remember that in Israel, we stayed awake all night long studying and discussing it.  That was the custom.                                               

According to U.S. media reports (including CNN, WSJ, Axios), Prime Minister Netanyahu has been urging President Trump, in several phone calls this week, to resume strikes against Iran, while Trump has been pushing for continuing negotiations. CNN reported that Trump told Netanyahu he wanted to allow several more days for a deal to emerge in order to save lives. The picture being painted is clearly one of Netanyahu trying to "pressure" Trump and drag the U.S. deeper into a war. 

But clearly,  President Trump is running the show and making decisions based on what he feels is best. Israel is following his direction. Yes, the U.S. military conducted airstrikes in southern Iran. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) described the attacks as "self-defense strikes" aimed at protecting American troops. The strikes hit Iranian missile launch sites and boats attempting to emplace mines.The action took place in the vicinity of Bandar Abbas, which is Iran's main naval base, located roughly 70km from the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM stated that the military action is being executed while utilizing "restraint" during the ongoing ceasefire. The strikes occurred simultaneously with ongoing ceasefire negotiations, as President Donald Trump recently indicated that talks with Tehran were "proceeding nicely".The United States struck targets in southern Iran on May 25, 2026. CENTCOM stated the action was taken in self-defense to protect American troops. The strikes specifically targeted Iranian missile launch sites and mine-laying boats off the Iranian coast, despite a fragile ceasefire that had been in effect since April.  This is past the time of counting the Omer which ended on Shavuot.  

Israel pounded Lebanon with more than 120 airstrikes in a single day, heavily targeting Hezbollah sites in the southern and eastern regions. The bombardment followed a tense phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump regarding ongoing US-Iran peace negotiations.  President Donald Trump’s stance on Israel's right to defend itself has been heavily shaped by the ongoing regional conflict, including massive joint U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran that began in February 2026. While the U.S. and Israel have closely coordinated in combat, the administration has also placed certain diplomatic constraints on certain actions. Netanyahu says Israel deepening its operations in Lebanon.  Hezbollah targets Israeli forces with drones, rockets as Israeli strikes intensify.  I think IDF is trying to get as much Hezbollah terrorism destroyed as they can while they have a green light before a cease fire does exist.  

Resource:

Added: 5/27/26

israelAM

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 

Biden Taking on Anti-Semitism in USA

 Nadene Goldfoot                               

                                The Torah;  The Law   

Today, just as observant Jews were about to celebrate Shavuot, the Biden-Harris Administration is releasing the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. This strategy includes over 100 new actions the Administration will take to raise awareness of antisemitism and its threat to American democracy, protect Jewish communities, reverse the normalization of antisemitism, and build cross-community solidarity.  We've been saying that it's almost as bad as it was in Germany in the 30s.  and just getting worse.   

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, addresses Jewish Federations at the Cabinet Activation Against Antisemitism in Washington, DC. Photo: Ralph Alswang)

The ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, helped the White House National Strategy to fight anti-Semitism.  AJC (American Jewish Committee)  also has been working to fight anti-Semitism,  In recent years, they have witnessed violent attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions, proposals in some countries to ban central Jewish religious practices, and anti-Jewish sentiments expressed by the leaders of far right- and left-wing political parties. American Jewish Committee (AJC) counters antisemitism in all its guises by calling on governments to act and by organizing coalitions with other faith and ethnic groups to forge a united front against hate.  There are other groups as well.  

             A protest against Jews, held by the Westboro Baptist Church

Religiously, some Christian churches have been teaching a replacement theory in they they have replaced Jews and so we Jews are no longer needed in the world. 

Then again, another replacement is going on.  The "Great Replacement" theme was stressed by people who highlighted the supposed threat of Jews and other immigrants replacing Americans who were born in the country. In the 1920s and 1930s, antisemitic activists were led by Henry Ford and other figures like Charles Lindbergh, William Dudley Pelley, Charles Coughlin and Gerald L. K. Smith, and some of them were also members of organizations like the America First Committee, the Christian Nationalist Crusade, the German American Bund, the Ku Klux Klan and the Silver Legion of America. They promulgated canards and various interrelated conspiracy theories that widely spread the fear that, through an evil transnational network, Jews were working for the destruction or replacement of white Americans along with the fear that Jews were working for the destruction or replacement of Christianity in the United States.  

Biden's  running for president now and was reminded of Charlottesville in 2017, when Neo-Nazis marched from the shadows spewing the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Europe in the 1930s. That was 6 years ago and anti-Semitism has only grown worse since then here in the USA.  That is why he has prioritized action to counter antisemitism and hate of all kinds.  That happened in Obama's era as he was President from 2009 to 2017.  It seems like when people show hatred for Blacks, they always include Jews.  

Back in 2020, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen presented remarks highlighting the Department of Justice’s work combating anti-Semitic acts at a virtual conference hosted by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo entitled “Ancient Hatred, Modern Medium”—the first ever government-sponsored event focused on online anti-Semitism.  Deputy Attorney General Rosen described just a few of the Department of Justice’s many recent accomplishments in combating anti-Semitism, focusing on social media and the internet.  His remarks as prepared for delivery are available here, and the full State Department conference may be viewed here.

Attorney General William Barr has emphasized that anti-Semitic acts, like other acts of violence motivated by hatred or bias, “violate the personal security of individuals, threaten the freedom of communities to pursue their faith and way of life, and disregard the common ties that bind our Nation together.”  The Department is committed to combating anti-Jewish hatred on multiple fronts and in a multi-faceted approach, using both criminal and civil statutes.  In this effort, federal law enforcement agencies work in conjunction with state law enforcement, local officials, and religious communities.  In the last three years, the Department of Justice has worked to protect the rights of the Jewish community, and of all faith communities, through a variety of initiatives and engagements.  But anti-Semitism has been growing worse in the USA.  

"President Joe Biden released this  national strategy to combat antisemitism touting commitments from organizations that have attacked Jewish groups,  but  failed to unequivocally condemn attacks on Israel as antisemitic, just hours before religiously observant Jews had to unplug for a 48-hour festival, Shavuot.  I suppose it's enough of a problem to stop here in the USA.  Perhaps he doesn't want to get into the role of Big Brother to Israel, which the USA actually is seen to be.  There's really much the USA could do to help de-power anti-Israel groups they now favor.  

   It's a holiday where we celebrate with dairy products, the favorite of which is cheesecake.  

  “It came out a few hours before Shavuos (Weeks) at the time of the wheat harvest, a holiday celebrated the night before on the 25th of May with first day on the 26th of May, one of the truly holy days in the Jewish calendar,” Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said of the president’s antisemitism strategy in an interview Tuesday with The Daily Signal. “You’re not supposed to do anything except eat, sleep, and pray, and not use the phone.  

                                         

”The holiday is a 2-day affair.  It commemorates the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai on Sivan 6 on the Jewish Calendar, and this permeates prayers chosen for this festival.  From the 16th century on, Jews have observed the eve of Shavuot in study and will stay up all night doing so. I experienced do this in Israel and had as a study partner, a 10 year old boy who I'm sure has grown up to be a rabbi.  It was an amazing experience.  The Book of Ruth, which mentions the barley and wheat harvests, is read in the synagogue on Shavuot.  Shavuot is one of the 3 pilgrim festivals where in the bible days, Jews everywhere in Israel made the trip to Jerusalem for this festival.  (Deut.16:16).  

“I think this made it more difficult for groups in Israel to respond immediately, and more difficult for people like me to act appropriately because I was preparing for the holy day,” Klein said. “I question whether this was intentional.”                   

                                                      

Golda Meir, whose name had been Golda Meyerson (1898-1978) was born in Kiev, Russia, went to the USA in Milwaukee, Wisconsin  as a child, and settled in Palestine in 1921, helping the Jewish people bring the land to fruition as Israel once again.  After much work with everyone to form a government, she became Prime Minister in 1969, and was serving during the Yom Kippur War, being reelected at the end of 1973 but retired in 1974.  She wrote her book, My Life, of which I read years ago, a fantastic book.  Why did her parents leave Russia?  Anti-Semitism, the pogroms they staged.  Why do any Jews live in Israel today?  Anti-Semitism happening where they had lived outside of Israel.  Holocaust survivors who were alive made it to Israel, and were immediately put to gun and guts to defend Israelis from terrorists shooting at them.  

                      Arabs throwing rocks at Jews

The problem Israel has with their neighbors, who are Muslim, is that they also have anti-Semitic feelings towards Israelis.  When Jews responded to the terrible anti-Semitism in the West and immigrated to Muslim countries to live, the Muslims accepted them but also treated them as 2nd class citizens as well. Jews of eastern Europe living in the Pale of Settlement, a Russian land, were suffering badly from pogroms being one of the issues. England had kept Jews out of their country for 365 years and had just let them back in by 1655, still giving them the cold shoulder of anti-Semitism.  Jews before 1948 in the USA couldn't belong to social clubs because they all kept out Jews, just like they wouldn't hire them for their businesses.  That's one reason why so many were small businessmen with their own shops.    So it's a situation where they have political issues, stating that no Jews can live in Palestine as well as hatred for Jews because they are not Muslims. How the politically and religiously important countries treated Jews, so did the rest of the world.  

Resource:

https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism, an update

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/nazis-racism-charlottesville/536928/

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/06/01/biden-touts-cair-splc-antisemitism-push-muddies-waters-israel-hours-major-jewish-holiday/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-releases-first-ever-u-s-national-strategy-to-counter-antisemitism/

https://www.ajc.org/issues/antisemitism

https://www.schusterman.org/article/us-antisemitism-is-on-the-rise-here%E2%80%99s-what-3-jewish-organizations-are-doing-about-it

https://israelandantisemitism.com/the-nexus-document/ update

https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/ update

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Celebrating Shavuot in Safed Forty Years Ago

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

May 29, 1982: Letter to my mother in Ontario, Oregon from Safed, Israel:

 We got back to Safed, ran to the supermarket on the way in, went home and collapsed.  Thursday was Shavuot, and Don and Maureen had been invited over for dinner.  I served borsht with sour cream, some delicious cold smoked fish that is better than kippered salmon, salad, cheese blintzes with sour cream and cherry preserves, and for dessert we had cheesecake with cherry topping.  Don was in seventh heaven.  I have to brag that everything tasted so good.  The blintzes came from your cookbook that you had given me.  

The next night we went to their home for Shabbat dinner.  That helps when you have two celebrations back to back to cook for.  The only problem is walking there and back, but the exercise is good for us.

Thursday night you are supposed to stay up all night and study the Tanach (bible).  Don and Maureen conked out and went home, but this eleven-ear-old Moishe came over and studied with us until about 2:00am.  At midnight, we all went outside and said a special prayer, because at midnight, the heavens were to open up and your prayer was to go directly up to HaShem (g-d).  Moishe thought the heavens really would open up and was afraid to go out at first.  His father was at the synagogue and really stayed up until 7:00am.  Anyway, we had lots of fun with Moishe, as he would say, "Stop!  I don't understand that," and we would go over some passage.  I think the kid is going to grow up to be a Tzaddick.  He's so smart.  Well, I've had a nice respite from my Jr. high students, and tomorrow I must be back in the saddle.

From my book, Letters From Israel, @ 2003  

Portland, Oregon's Shavuot Becoming a Kristallnacht of 1938

Nadene Goldfoot

Germany, November 9, 1938 during Kristallnacht when people
attacked anything owned by Jews such as this synagogue and
burned it down. Rioters burned down 250 synagogues throughout Germany.
 This riot was "set off by Germans' anger over the assassination of a German official in Paris at the hands of a Jewish teenager.
Glass from shop windows were all broken and looting took over, similar to what
happened last night in our Portland's Kristallnacht.
One difference was that Jews were killed.  I haven't heard of any
deaths except what triggered this, George Floyd's death.

The fact was that  "German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis carefully organized the pogroms."

                                                       

Marchers from the George Floyd vigil at Peninsula Park in Portland, Oregon
going towards the Justice Center downtown.
Those who took this picture may have been hit by canisters
with tear gas in it that burns the eyes and lungs, as TV reported this morning.
Rioters broke into Police Headquarters and was burning it.
Minneapolis was the first scene of rioting as George
Floyd was from there. 
How Ironic this event that turned into a destructive riot
happened on our Jewish holiday of Shavuot, a time of remembering
the laws of Moses handed down to us.  

On our first night of Shavuot, the Jewish holiday of celebrating the receiving of the Torah (5 books of Moses), we had a pogrom in our beautiful city of Portland happening right downtown, and the ones again who were the target were the shopkeepers, though their religion was not the issue like what happened on November 9, 1938 when a most horrible of all riot happened when Jews were killed and their whole world was destroyed besides their shops.  
                                                       

Rabbi carrying the Torah
on  Shavuot by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim
Remembering when Moses gave
those on Exodus the Laws-
and the people had no time yet to learn about the kosher law pertaining to eating meat; so the people
had milk products that night.  
We remember this night and our next with the eating of
cheese cake and cheese blintzes, etc besides being
in the synagogue on this illustrious night of Shabbat,
a double mitzva; Shabbat falling on Shavuot.  

What gets into people who act like Nazis with no moral instinct but the need to destroy?  This riot in Portland was born from another Black person being killed by the policeman who was holding him down when he begged for his life.  It's been happening too often, and the Black population has had enough.  
                                                         

Looks like a take-down of several men in a pile
by 3 policemen

I thought, "What a dumb thing to do for this policeman.  Doesn't he know what a sensitive issue this is involving so many of the Black Americans?  Would he treat my son like this?  Hasn't he gone through intense training to be careful with life?   What gets into someone engaged in a hold-down?  I have gone through such training myself and didn't experience any feelings but possible fear for myself while doing it with my peer partner.  I'm a female, so it might be different for men.   

Of course it was a gestapo type of act of the part of the policeman.  But is this act repulsed by the tendencies of the police or army when they are met with a challenge, the need to use what they have been trained to do?  It doesn't soften their feelings for those they are preventing from breaking laws.  More likely it hardens their hearts as well when they are engaged with rioters breaking all the laws including theft.  

The German Kristallnacht, "the "Night of Broken Glass," for the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the streets, was instigated by the German government, and lasted 2 days of rioting where the destruction was of the whole city.  250 synagogues were burned and over 7,000 business were broken into.  Glass covered the streets everywhere, like Portland was attacked last night.

Jewish cemeteries were vandalized as well as hospitals, schools and homes of the Jewish people.  All this went on with the police and fire department just watching and doing nothing to stop it.   They were in on the destruction and hatred of the Jewish people, and for why, the old anti-Semitic feelings against Jews that has been going on ever since the first century and even before.  

It gives me the shivers that such an act as this can happen with such intensity 82 years after the German Kristallnacht which was the beginning of the Holocaust.  It has hurt all the good people who have worked hard to be successful and keep afloat during our  world-wide pandemic where all over businesses have had to close down in order to get rid of a life-killing virus running rampant throughout the world.  This this is how rebels treat the city, killing the way of people making a living for themselves who follow laws and are doing their part to help preserve life.  They are now experiencing a double whammy!  Coronavirus and a pogrom!  

This rioting and stealing will not be forgotten.  Does it help the cause of having better relations between Blacks and Police?  No, I don't think so.  More training may be in the works but that doesn't mend the hearts and minds of those dealing with rioters.  

Like Portland's Mayor stated, "How does this honor  George Floyd?" 

Resource:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-night-of-broken-glass
https://www.voanews.com/usa/portland-oregon-protest-erupts-riot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavuot

Hold the Meat! It's Dairy Time!

Nadene Goldfoot                                     

Erev Shavuot falls on Saturday evening this year.  Shavuot is then on Sunday and Monday.  As we in Oregon had Cinco de Mayo, a historic holiday of Mexico, we Jews have historic holidays, also, and this one coming up is historic and religious which has us remembering the actual time when Moses received the Torah, now a 2 day festival.  This is when G-d revealed Himself directly to the 600,000 Israelite and other slaves that Moses had freed from Egypt, when they had already started their Exodus , their march of freedom from 400 years of slavery in Egypt.

According to our tradition, We ALL stood at Sinai with the 600,000.  It had to have been a mind-blowing occasion as we haven't forgotten this experience.  I think of it as earth-shaking, a traumatic experience that entered our very being.

Moses was born in c1391 BCE and died in 1271 BCE at age 120.  He was not allowed in Canaan but died outside of it in an unnamed grave on purpose so as to prevent anyone from worshipping him.
                                                                               

From that day on, this moment or hour, or days, however long it took to receive the Torah, which are the Five Books of Moses, we remember it yearly with its special day and customs that have evolved.  One custom is to stay up the entire night of Shavuot, studying and discussing the Torah.
                                                                               
I had the privilege of doing just that when I lived in Israel in the town of Safed.  Our neighbor's son, about age 10 or 11, parents from the States, would come over to our house to visit, and this little boy was amazingly bright.  He spent Shavuot with us because his father was in the synagogue.  So he and my husband discussed all sorts of tidbits from the Torah.  He asked Danny questions and was more mature about the answers than most adults would be.  It was enjoyable and so educational.

The other custom is in eating cheesecake and  a dairy Kugel.  The reason this is the time for dairy items is that  after Sinai with its Kosher laws of not mixing meat with milk, the Jews could not spend a lot of time preparing a meat meal during the holiday.  This involved finding and slaughtering the animal allowed for food such as a cow, kashering the meat, which is a fairly lengthy process of salting, etc., There were other reasons.
                                                                                   

The Torah's words are like milk and honey.
When receiving the Ten Commandments, we should not be reminded of the golden calf episode and the following breaking of the first tablets of Ten Commandments. Then we received 613 more laws, most of which we follow anyway, the same number of bones in our body. 
                                                                             

There is a tradition of studying a small section from every book of the Bible (Tanakh) and every section of the Talmud in order to study symbolically the entire body of Jewish religious writings.
                                                                               
Realistically, it's up to the group involved in studying together, they should choose.  The story for us is that the Israelites fell asleep during the night before the receiving of the Torah and had to be awakened by Moses.  To show our eagerness and because we do not have Moses to awaken us, we stay up all night.
                                                                           

During the Exodus, from Egypt back to Canaan
where Jacob and his sons had lived before the drought when
they had left seeking pasture and food

It is said that the heavens open  up at midnight on Shavuot, which make this time the best for our prayers and thoughts to ascend.  There is also something very special in spending an all-nighter studying such a special subject  where you can greet the sunrise and receive the Torah.
                                                                           

As a conservative Jew, I had never experienced this holiday, but did in Israel.  I will always be thankful of having that youngster with us which made it even more meaningful and delightful.

We did eat cheesecake, however.  And we had dairy meals instead of meat.  Part of the laws of kashrut are that we do not eat meat and dairy foods together.  Different groups have different lengths of time to separate eating them.  Some were known to wait an hour, some 6 hours apart.  If you drank milk first, you could eat meat shortly afterwards, Mama said.    The idea is not to mix the two in one's tummy and more.
                                                                           

 One reasoning of not eating the two together is to not hurt the cow's feelings of eating her child and then drinking her milk on top of that.  It does teach children to be aware of even an animal's feelings in how it's being treated as well as his or hers own brothers or sisters and friends.  I love this teaching and when you understand why, of course it's a beautiful thing to practice.
                                                                           

For Friday night, it's nice to bake twin Hallot (2 loaves of Challah) thinking of the two tablets Moses brought down from the mountain or the 2 loaves of bread which were offered in the Temple.  Some even add a ladder of 7 layers of heaven which G-d rent as He descended onto Sinai.  In Hebrew, the word for ladder is Salam.  It is equivalent in Gematria (numbers) to Sinai.  This is getting into a little of Kabbalah, I see. 

So get out the recipes of blintzes and cheesecake.
                                                    

 Here's a recipe I'll share for a Prize Winning Dairy Kugel

1/2 lb medium sized noodles, cooked in salt water and drained
1/8 lb melted butter
1/2 cup sugar-make it scant
1 cup sour cream
2 cups milk,
1/2 lb cream cheese,
1 lb cottage cheese,
1/2 lb farmers cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and stir in the noodles.  Pour into a 9X13" buttered casserole dish.
                      TOPPING
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 Tablespoons melted butter

Combine and spread on noodles or sprinkle on separately

BAKE AT  350 degrees for 1 and 1/2 hours.
Enjoy!

Resource:  The Jewish Catalog
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/01/differences-between-kosher-and-halal.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2016/03/vegan-diet-in-judaism.html

Retelling the Planning of the Exodus

Escaping the Egyptian soldiers with a miracle happening, the parting of the sea
Led by Moses, Egyptian slaves were freed after 400 years of slavery
only to be chased for their leaving-with their permission.  This was the beginning of
such experiences of a government not keeping their promise to this people,
yet they will survive.  Am Yisrael Chai! 
We remember these days with our holidays of Passover and Sukkot  

Nadene Goldfoot                                         

Planning the what would turn out to be a 40 year Exodus for people who had been held as slaves for the past 400 years was a monumental task, fit for a Prince of Egypt, even though he was now past 80 years old.
                                                                               

Moses, a Levite,  had time to think about how he would do such a thing on his own journey when he left his wife, children and grandchildren in Midian to travel back to where he had been born; Egypt.  He knew he would have to win a debate first with today's Pharaoh, a boy he grew up with, he figured.  Then the Exodus itself.  How would he survive at his age without the comforts of home?  His own kin would not mind being they had known nothing but slavery and hardship in their whole lives, but he had been raised by the Pharaoh's daugher and was educated along with the Pharaoh's own grandchildren.  He had had the comforts of living in the princess's own household.  He had lived comfortably in Midian with Jethro, the local priest, and his daughter, Zipporah, as his wife.
                                                                         

This is the time for us to reflect what it would have been like for our ancestors back 4,000 years ago to go on such a journey and relive in role-play during Passover slightly the lives of our ancestors who took us out of any possibility of us growing up in slavery and not as free men in our own country.  It's come about slowly for us.  Not until the end of WWI  in 1917 did most European Jews feel freed  from the tyranny of Europe towards the Jewish people.

Ah yes, the Jewish people.  We've been a people without  a country ever since 70 CE when the Romans burned down our 2nd Temple, Solomon having built the first that was so damaged by Nebuadnezzar, the Babylonian in 586 ///BCE, in Jerusalem.  We had started off as a family of 70 and our servants in the town of Ur, now found in Iraq, and we were very fertile.  We grew and grew and were added to by other slaves held in Egypt that worked with us.  Moses made us a people which we happily agreed with.
                                                                           

Moses helped us to become a people with a religion, a way of life in that we would be treating people the way we would like to be treated.  We would never do to them what we didn't want done to us again, like make people into slaves, or kill at will as we lived under such stress.  There was but one G-d; not a world of them in Mt. Olympus as the Greeks and Romans believed; but one unseen G-d who told Moses how to get us from point A in Egypt to point B back to the home of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  How we have remembered these people, our dream held long dear with stories from our parents handed down to us.

Moses had used all the convincing techniques he had up his sleeves to get the Pharaoh to allow this people to exit out of Egypt.  400 years was enough.  Times had changed.  This Pharaoh was in agreement.  He remembered Moses.
                                                                         

Today's journey between Egypt and Jordan

Imagine the rush that occurred with these slaves having been told by Moses that they would have to leave in a few hours after being given the signal that it was a GO.  The rush to collect all they could from people around them that would help on their journey.  Women who knew they had no time, mixed flour and water together and spread it out on rocks to dry in the sun for food to carry on the journey; something we imitate with our matzos.  Believe me, it was much harder to chew than Manischewitz matzos.   Animals rounded up to take on the journey.  400 years of work without pay, and these people knew this, so felt they had something coming to them.  They had no idea that they would be on the march for 40 years.
                                                                         

Retelling the Exodus story with song; as told in our Tanakh
You will bring them and implant them on the mount of Your heritage,
the foundation of Your dwelling-place that You, Hashem, have made-
the Sanctuary, my Lord, that Your hands established.  

And so we continue to retell this story every year since it occurred.
It was that life-changing an episode. 

I can't imagine how they ever lived through slavery for that long a period of time.  Sleeping without a Seely mattress, how could they have managed that?
                                                                             

A Sukkah, built as it was 3500 years ago.  

Our American Colonialists and Pioneers had made something soft to sleep on.  Even English people in the 1200s would have had some sort of hay or straw bedding.  My grandmother in Portland had a feather pillow; maybe they had feather mattresses.   What did slaves have but hard cold floors?  How could they have slept outside?  How did they waken without coffee?  Today we can't even get started without it.
                                                                         

We know that they had built 3 sided-type tents, Sukkot,  on their trip over the sandy desert for protection when sleeping using some sticks and then blankets for the sides.  We copy this also in our following holiday of Sukkot and people in Israel do eat and sleep in them for the length of our holiday of remembrance.  Sukkot comes after Passover.  This is when we speak and remember the awesome event experienced by the children of Israel (Jacob) which is what we called ourselves, 7 weeks after their exodus from Egypt when they camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula.                                                             

 It was then that the Revelation was revealed to the people, Israel.  It's when Moses came down the mountain with the 10 commandments given to him by G-d.  These very same commandments were to become the moral  bedrock for much of Western civilization.
                                                                               

The distance from Egypt to Canaan is not that far.  Today you can travel it in 10 hours on route 90 by car.  It's 751.5 km or 466.96045 miles.  I can travel 400 miles from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, Oregon across the state in 6 to 7 hours easily.   In 1579 BCE, about 3,500 years ago it took Moses 40 years to move 600,000 people that far.  As it was done on purpose, we have to understand that this gave the people time to produce two more generations that were not slaves and did not have the slave mentality, but had turned into a solid people, and were producing strength of mind and body.  By the time they arrived in that 40 year epoch, they were not the same people that had left.  They, of course, had mostly died off, and this was a new breed of people, so anxious to end their migration.  They had been exposed to much in their travels of other people and ways of living so they could compare what they had accepted with what they had seen.  They had something now they had lost;strong  faith in their one G-d, a belief that Abraham had taught his children.

Moses survived the 40 year trek but died just outside of Canaan, so he never saw the land of his fathers.  He died in an unknown spot so as not to ever to be worshipped-(G-d forbid) as a god.  He was a man who listened to his moral compass; his G-d.

The end of our role play to remember those days is done in a Sukkah below is a large community-sized sukkah which perhaps a synagogue has built it for its congregants to perform the mitzvah of eating in one as our forefathers did.  Woven mats carried could be the answer for clean flooring, and sleeping.  I'm sure our forefathers didn't have tables or chairs but sat on cushions on the mats.  I hope cushions were invented there by then.
                                                                                   

Resource: Tanakh (Old Testament)
To Be a Jew-by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin