At Passover Seders all around the world, a place setting was laid before a chair left empty for one of the 133 hostages held in Gaza. We look back at the 200 days of anguish, hope, and despair that divide Simchat Torah on October 7 from this week’s holiday

We discuss: 1) What to make of this week’s massive Iranian attack on Israel 2) What Passover tells us about how to understand all that has happened since October 7, and what all that has happened since October 7 tells us about how to understand Passover

We discuss: 1) Whether and how we Israelis have changed, in light of all that has happened 2) Whether and how we Jews around the world have changed, in light of all that has happened

We discuss: 1) The decision by families of the hostages to link their campaign to bring them home to the campaign for “elections now” 2) The Supreme Court injunction that cuts off funding for army-aged, ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students who learn instead of serve

We discuss: 1) The very fast seeming-decline in US-Israel relations 2) The claim by an urban warfare expert that Israel has displayed an unprecedentedly-high standard of concern for the safety of civilians in Gaza

We discuss: 1) An opposition conference at the Knesset setting out a new peace plan for our troubled times 2) the trope of an eternal, genocidal Amalek, why it is everywhere these days

We discuss: 1) The Atlantic cover story arguing that the “Golden Age” for American Jews has come to a close 2) The well-regarded literary journal’s retraction of an essay by an Israeli on account of, well, what exactly?

We discuss: 1) The Jerusalem election results which gave, for the first time ever, a majority to Ultra-Orthodox men 2) Whether it’s time for soul-searching and spiritual reckoning over the death and destruction in Gaza

We discuss: 1) The weird city council race that ushered Noah into the corridors of immense power 2) Why Israeli mayors, once elected the first time, keep getting reelected over and over again

138 days in, The Promised Podcast looks back