‘How can we drink four cups at the Seder, when we have hostages taken in their pajamas?’ – Chief Rabbi Lau
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

Hostage family members speak at a unity rally at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, with participation from 60 different non-profit organizations.
Two of the first speakers are Iris Haim, mother of hostage Yotam Haim who was accidentally killed after 70 days of captivity, and bereaved mother Dina Guedalia, mother of Sgt. First Class Yosef Malachi Guedalia, who fell in battle on October 7.
Guedalia fought in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in the neighborhood for the younger kibbutznikim, where Yotam was taken captive. The two mothers met while speaking at a religious girls’ school in Jerusalem.
“Iris and I, Yotam and Yosef, we are from the same village,” said Guedalia.
Haim said their family was supposed to meet up on October 7 to see Yotam, a heavy metal drummer, perform in Tel Aviv.
“I, Iris, a woman, with a son playing music on Shabbat, and Dina, a religious woman, and we’re one family, I have a lot of love for those like me and those who are not like me,” said Haim. “Be heroes too, we started and you continue. Look beyond and find what unites you, each one in their place and home.”
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau calls upon the crowd to hear the words of Iris, to understand that everyone wants the hostages home, that “we are one nation, even though others need to remind us sometimes.”
“How can we drink four cups at the seder, when we have hostages taken in their pajamas, in their slippers from their homes?” says Lau. “It is our obligation to bring them home, and to think of them all.”
Shelly Shem-Tov, mother of hostage Omer Shem-Tov, says that as a resident of Herzliya, in the country’s center, she never met with people outside her community before October 7.
“I didn’t really understand about rockets hitting a home in Sderot or the Gaza border communities until Omer was taken hostage, and I want your houses to be safer and my friends in Judea and Samaria, that you shouldn’t be frightened for your lives all the time, we want a place that will be safe to live, we need to be shoulder to shoulder,” says Shem-Tov.