Pesach Kavanos

It's Erev Pesach and I'm sure that all bechorim have gone to siyumim to avoid fasting. When was the last time a bechor actually had to fast on erev pesach?
We are all busy with our last minute preparations. Packing our cars to go away, if we aren't already tanning in sunny Florida, or last minute cleanings, biur chametz, cleaning the cars, manicures, pedicures, facials, etc. Not that I am criticizing or, chas v'shalom, do I have anything against these things, my point is simply that B"H we live very comfortable lives.


A little more than sixty years ago, life was not that simple and not that comfortable. Sixty years is not such a long time. B"H we still have representatives that lived through and survived those terrible times.
I can't believe I had never heard of it before, but this week, someone brought to my attention a tefila that was composed in Bergen Belsen in 1944. Although apparently in 1945, somehow, they were able to make some small amounts of matza, "When Rabbi Israel Spira led 70 Bergen-Belsen Jews to demand flour for baking matza, it was a demand so audacious in the SS Valley of Death that a stunned Adolf Haas, camp commandant, acquiesced." However, in 1944 they obviously did not have matza in the camp.
The rabbinical authority, Rabbi Aharon Davids, led the Seder in the male barracks, conducting the ceremony from memory. The mesiras nefesh that these jews possessed is mind boggling. When he reached the part of blessing on the mitzvah to eat matzah, they said the following tefilla (translated here into english):
"Heavenly Father, it is clear to You that our will is to do Your will and celebrate Passover by eating matzoh, and by refraining from chametz. But we are sick at heart because the oppression and mortal danger in which we find ourselves prevents us (from fulfilling these commandments). We are ready and willing to fulfill Your mandate that we 'live by the commandments and not die by them'. And we are observing Your warning: 'Protect yourself and keep your soul alive.' We therefore beseech You to keep us alive, sustain us and redeem us speedily, so that we may observe your statutes, carry out Your will and serve You wholeheartedly." Rabbi Davids then ate from a piece of bread, urging his followers to do the same.
For more details on the seder in Bergen Belsen click here .

If only, we, living in the laps of luxury can have half the kavanos on our matza during the seder that they had on their chametz. Something to think about tonight and tomorrow.

Chag Kasher V'Sameach

(Please click here to see a post with a similar concept, but relating to chanukah)