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Passover is a Jewish holiday symbolizing emancipation. But this year, with the backdrop of the war against Hamas, still-missing Israeli hostages and devastating civilian causalities in Gaza, the celebration — and the conversations around it — will be more complex for many who will be partaking.

Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, the founding director of the Block/Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, told CNN she will host two Passover Seders this year.

“The whole ritual of the Seder is grounded in the notion that when we speak to each other in deep, holy ways, and we listen in deep holy ways, that’s what brings redemption,” she said. “It’s about uncovering the complexity of what we’re seeing. It’s about uncovering the struggles, the things that are hard to talk about. Not only because we worry that someone may disagree, but because we have trouble articulating what we ourselves may feel and believe.”

It’s important to remember that discussions at the Seder table could get contentious in part because people care, not because they want to hurt one another, she said.

“We human beings long for things to be simple, especially to be morally simple,” she said. “We want clear good guys and bad guys that enable us to feel like we are right. But the reality of morality isn’t like that. The reality of a moral life for a mature person is that we make complex choices.”

Rabbi Uhrbach says that this year’s Seder is ultimately about gratitude.

“We’re all here at the same table,” she said. “That’s what matters.”

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