ToI Community update — Editor’s Note: A Passover prayer * Podcast: Archaeological tour of Holy Sepulchre * Streetwise Hebrew series archive

[The Times of Israel]( Dear ToI Community members and Daily Edition readers, We are sending this week’s ToI Community update to our Daily Edition readers too, with a timely Passover message. (If you’re not yet a Community member, [join up here]( and you’ll receive these personal letters every week.) Pesach, that annual reminder of freedom’s splendor, arrives this year with staggering resonance. We will recall the 10 plagues inflicted upon our ancestors’ Egyptian enslavers as we make a tentative exit from that modern affliction, the COVID-19 pandemic, hopeful but uncertain that it is gradually becoming safer to spend time in simple proximity to each other. We will recite an invitation to “all those in need” to share our good fortune and celebrate our historic tale of liberation while acutely conscious of the oppression of other nations, and especially, Ukraine, and our responsibility to open our doors and assist. And we will celebrate our ancient exodus from bondage, our journey to peoplehood, and our establishment in our homeland, in the midst of a wave of terrorism and wider, strategic efforts to uproot us from here — a time, as so often before, when the deadly hostility of our enemies poses a direct challenge to our independence and our very lives. A fish swallows an Egyptian soldier in a mosaic scene depicting the splitting of the Red Sea from the Exodus story, from the 5th-century synagogue at Huqoq, in northern Israel, unveiled in 2017. (Jim Haberman/University of North Carolina Chapel Hill) But as the Passover story underlines, and our modern experience confirms yet again, we Israelites are a resilient and a capable people. And we are inspired by a faith, and equipped with a life code, that provide a unique moral and practical compass. This Pesach, as always, may our leaders be granted the wisdom to safeguard the modern miracle of Israel — to use that compass to ensure Israel’s survival and advancement as a thriving Jewish and a democratic country, a true light unto the nations. May they and all of us be guided to muster the strength and the skill to thwart our modern enemies, led by the tyrants of Iran. And rather than fall prey again to vicious internal intolerance and hatred, may we all internalize the darker lessons of our millennia of Jewish history, when we were brought lowest by our own internal divisions, and lost sight of our core obligation to respect others and to treat them as we ourselves would wish to be treated. How bitterly ironic that the current Israeli government is in the process of tearing itself apart in a broad long-running religious [dispute]( in which the back-breaking straw [ostensibly relates to the entry of hametz](, unleavened bread, into the country’s hospitals on Pesach. And how dismally predictable and dangerous that a purportedly religious opposition leader, on the eve of the festival, has [called]( for coalition MKs to be barred from our synagogues. At the Seder, we are instructed to retell the Exodus, the journey to our liberation, as though we too were slaves in Egypt, and we too were freed by divine will and power. Because, of course, the transition to freedom is still incomplete. May this year bring it a little closer. *** We are hugely appreciative that so many of you have been joining the ToI Community, and thus helping finance the work of our reporters and editors. If you haven’t yet joined, [please do](, for as little as $6 a month! In addition to supporting our work financially, that will remove ads, and you’ll gain access to Community-only content. 🎧 Times Will Tell early access: How authentic is the spot of Church of the Holy Sepulchre? A top archaeologist shows us. Prof. Jodi Magness in the Jerusalem Old City’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Monday, April 11, 2022. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel) This week on Times Will Tell, ahead of Easter, host Amanda Borschel-Dan tours the Jerusalem Old City’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre with top archaeologist Prof. Jodi Magness. Christian tradition holds that Jesus was crucified and buried on the spot of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As we tour the church and its surroundings, we see parts of the ruins of earlier stages of the church, including a find from when it was built by Constantine in around 330 CE, as well as remains of earlier structures. At the end of the tour, we see what Magness feels is the best evidence that supports the Christian tradition. For much of our tour, we are standing next to praying pilgrims, so to respect them, at times we’re almost whispering. Apologies as well for the background noise as Holy Week was being observed in Jerusalem. As always, your ToI Community membership gives you early access to Times Will Tell: [Listen to Times Will Tell]( And be sure to subscribe to Times Will Tell on [Apple Podcasts]( [Google Podcasts]( [Spotify](, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Streetwise Hebrew series archive We’ve now completed the first series of Streetwise Hebrew, exclusive to the Times of Israel Community. Did you miss any part of it? You can access all six months of this series at any time on the Streetwise Hebrew for ToI Community page: [Streetwise Hebrew for ToI Community](Due to the great response to this first series of Streetwise Hebrew for the ToI Community, we’re considering a series two that would start at a later date. Would that interest you? If so, please [let us know](mailto: community@timesofisrael.com)! 🙋 Have something to share? We’d love to hear it! Join the discussion on the [ToI Community Facebook group](. Keep tabs on new content and events on our [Community Page](. And don’t hesitate to [write to us](mailto: community@timesofisrael.com) with any suggestions, issues or questions. Be well, David Horovitz Founding Editor, The Times of Israel You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to The Times of Israel's Daily Edition. If you would like to stop receiving editorial announcements, please click below to unsubscribe. [Unsubscribe]( Email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser](