Wartime Diaries: Mishael Zion

Next week, millions of Jews around the world will sit down at their Passover tables, for what will invariably be a very different kind of seder. The timeless question of how this night, or this Pesach, is different from all other nights, and all other Pesachs, has gained an entirely new – and tragic – dimension since October 7th. And few, if any, have thought about this matter more than forty-three year old Mishael Zion, a liberal Orthodox rabbi and Jewish educator from Jerusalem.

In 1997, Mishael’s father – Noam Zion – together with his friend David Dishon – published a popular English-language Haggadah called “A Different Night.” Seven years later, Mishael joined forces with his dad in creating an Israeli version: HaLayla HaZeh: Haggadah Israelit. And this year, two decades after that Israeli Haggadah came out, Mishael and his father decided to update it, for the first post-October 7th seder.

The end song is Chad Gadya (“One Little Goat”) by Chava Alberstein.
Produced in partnership with The Times of Israel.

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