Released hostage Agam Berger spoke about her time in captivity and told about the Passover Haggadah she received during their time in captivity, from her friend Liri Albag.
In an interview with the Kfar Chabad magazine's Derech Emuna supplement, Agam said, "Liri, who I was with for most of my time in captivity, decided to surprise me, and she prepared a sort of Haggadah with illustrations. She took pages from a notebook that was in the apartment we were held in in Gaza, and drew pictures of Pesach, mostly. She hid it from me so that it would be a surprise, and on the Seder night she gave it to me. I remember when I saw the Haggadah that she made, I really cried."
About the holiday itself, she said, "We tried to make the holiday as festive as possible. Liri took a bit of aluminum foil that there was in the house, and placed it on the table. We put napkins. We tried to make sure there was a bit more food than usual. In our house we eat kitniyot (legumes) on Passover, so we ate the rice."
"After the meal, we went over the booklet that Liri prepared. We hardly had anything to make a blessing on. I think we had just a bit of charoset, which we had managed to prepare from dates. I remember that we placed a chair for Elijah the Prophet at the side of the room. In general, it was a month in which there were a few more vegetables, so we made a salad, potatoes. Whatever we could."
Agam added that her faith is what kept her strong in captivity: "I felt that G-d was watching over me. Think about a day like October 7. They were firing in my direction and I remained alive. Even before that, I believed, I would speak with G-d before that, but on a day like the day of the attack, it was so much more. I don't know if you know, but when I was in the bomb shelter, the only thing I said was 'Shema Yisrael.'"
"Later, in Gaza, I felt again that G-d is watching over me. In the beginning, I thought that within a few days everything would be over and I would return home. I did not think then that it would last over a year. During that period, there were times when, naturally, our spirits fell. But that did not harm our faith that G-d is watching over us."
Recalling the holiday of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), she said, "Ahead of Sukkot, we hung decorations in the room. Liri took papers and created a sort of chain of circles, and we hung it up. I prepared a sign that said, 'Happy holiday' and we hung it up. The terrorists did not understand what we were doing."
When asked how they knew the dates, Agam explained, "We asked them to tell us. Sukkot is a week-long holiday, and apparently on at least one of the days we guessed the right date. Ahead of Hanukkah, by the way, we tried to get hold of candles and did not succeed. On one of the days, they brought us a sort of electric candle and we used it. On one of the days of the holiday, the first Hanukkah in captivity, last year, they brought us a single round candle and we lit it. That was already in the tunnel. It stayed lit a long time, maybe because of the oxygen in the tunnel the candle stayed lit for more time than it usually would."
When asked why the terrorists prepared them candles, she said, "We really asked them. We said that it was an important holiday, of miracles. They also wanted to be finished with their watch over us. They themselves did not think it would last so long, such a long time."
Agam also said that throughout her time in captivity, she kept the homemade sukkah decorations and the Passover Haggadah that they had prepared. She wanted to bring it home, as a memory. But nothing was returned to her.
"We had a notebook," she recalled. "And from that, we prepared a Haggadah. In general, we would draw in the notebook and the terrorists would check every so often to see what we were drawing. They were afraid that we would write down all sorts of details of information that we knew, and so on. Liri [Albag] would draw more. There came a point when they would take interest in the drawings themselves."
Agam's father, Shlomi, said, "We celebrated Passover last year with the hostages' families, who united together at a hotel. We were all in the same situation and we felt each other. During the rest of the intermediate days, we were at home. We had no desire to do anything. This year, we will celebrate the holiday of freedom, and our private exodus from Egypt, with our family. And still, our hearts are still torn by the fact that there are families who are not yet able to celebrate with their loved ones."
"Despite this, we will celebrate the holiday. This is what we are commanded, and I think that this is our renewal, the true revival. Just like Agam's brother celebrated his bar mitzvah when she was in captivity. And we celebrated this with him, with the greatest happiness. So, too, we will celebrate Passover, because that is what we are commanded to do and that is what will lift us up as a people, and not bring our spirits down."