When fallen IDF soldier, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, was a 17-year-old Bnei Akiva youth-group counselor in Kfar Saba, before Pesach he sent out the following short but powerful message about choosing between slavery or freedom. This will be the fifth Pesach that the Goldin family celebrates without him, demanding that his body be returned for Jewish burial in Israel.
And this is what Hadar wrote for the kids in his youth group:
"Well, Purim is behind us, and Pesach is around the corner. The special thing about Purim and Pesach is that both of them are full of stories. We all become storytellers! On Purim, we tell the story of the Megilah, and on Pe-sach (literally, the mouth speaks) we tell lots of stories about the Exodus from Egypt.
There are many stories in our lives, each one of us has our own story. And all of our stories are part of the great story of the Jewish people, which has led the great story of human history. Along the way, there were our forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David...and now us. In our own stories, everyone can decide whether they are the main character, the hero, or if they are just minor characters as the story passes them by.
Are you leading your story? Is your story a good story? Is your story connected to the story of the Jewish people? Does it move us forward? Or do you let others control your story for you? Are you truly free, or are you a slave to your desires? A slave to others?".
Hadar did not know what a major role he, in the end, would play in the story of us all.
Translation by JewishMOM.com
