Podcast Summary: The "Egypt Within Us" Edition

The Promised Podcast – TLV1 Studios
Date: April 1, 2026
Hosts: Noah Ephron, Linda Gratzine, Judah Ari Gross

Overview

This episode of The Promised Podcast explores the profound contradictions and emotional intensity of life in Israel, focusing on current events, Passover traditions, and the tenuous hope for peace and justice amidst ongoing war. Against the backdrop of escalating violence and the looming Passover holiday, the hosts discuss settler violence in the West Bank, the evolving meaning of the Exodus story, and the everyday resilience required to navigate life in an embattled country.

Main Segments & Key Insights

1. Opening & Viral Municipal Video: "Tehran to Tel Aviv 2030"

• [00:18] Noah opens by describing a viral municipality-sourced video imagining direct flights from Tehran to Tel Aviv in 2030.
• The video, entirely in Farsi, depicts an Iranian tourist experiencing Tel Aviv’s food, sea, nightlife, and people; it ends with the message: “You’ve just watched an imaginary reel. For now, everything can still change. Everything must change.”
  • Quote:
    “If we are so similar, how were we ever so far apart? So now there are direct flights from Tehran to Tel Aviv. Don't miss it. Kisses from Tel Aviv 2030.”
• The hosts reflect on the mixture of confident hope for peace and the current harsh reality where Israel and Iran are at war.

2. Life in Israel: Anxieties and Everyday Humor

• [05:13] Linda narrates her early-morning missile siren, followed by Passover shopping experiences.

• Lighthearted banter about different supermarket chains and kitniyot (legumes) debate within Passover observance.

  • Quote:
    Linda: "Oshar ad, which means happiness forever, is happiness once you actually leave the store. And that you survived."
    [05:33]

• Noah shares a touching story about “Cafe Mi Aleve,” a city hall café staffed by people with special needs.

  • Quote:
    Noah: “The people who work there are so, so nice … they ask, how has your day been? … And I find myself thinking, you know, we don't have all day here… But I think I am capable of pettiness at a level that other people can only dream about.”
    [08:02]

3. Passover in Wartime – Voices from Across Israel

“Promise Podcast Ponders: Passover Plans Amid Uncertainty”

• [10:14] [Segment led by Miriam] Snapshots from various Israelis about celebrating Seder under the shadow of war:
  • Roxanne Halper: Plans disrupted by canceled flights; silver lining in joining friends.
  • Faye Bittger: Worries about travel safety due to missile alerts.
  • Anita Besdin: Anxiety over being stuck on highways without a shelter.
  • Susan Warchaser: Hopes her son, an officer in Lebanon, will make it home.
  • Linda Gratzine and Varda Lifny: Stories of sons serving in the army/miluim (reserves) and juggling family.
  • Commitment to keep family traditions alive despite heavy spirits.
    • Quote:
      Anita: “If it weren’t for the desire to keep the family traditions and memory making alive for the third generation little kids, we might just forget the Seder this year.” [13:01]
  • Dogs affected by war anxiety, joining families at Seder or being left alone.
  • Seder traditions: singing, unique family menus (including humorous Persian/Iran-themed ones).
  • Heavy mood:
    • Quote:
      Faye: “This year doesn't feel like that's what we want to be doing and it's even a little heavy to broach the freedom, you know, we're not feeling so free this year.” [16:08]
  • Reflections on diaspora and rootedness:
    • Varda tells the story of the Offenbach Haggadah and Jewish families who yearned for “Worms, am Rhein,” yet were exiled by the Holocaust.
  • Universal wishes for peace:
    • Quote:
      Roxanne: “Next year in peace for everyone. Next year in justice for everyone. Also the Gazans, and also the Iranians, and also the Kurds, and also the Syrians, ... and all of us next year in peace.” [18:03]

4. Discussion 1: "Thug Life" – Settler Violence in the West Bank

[23:25] Discussion Begins

Background & Context (Linda Gratzine):

• Former PM Ehud Olmert calls for ICC intervention against increasing Jewish extremist violence.
• Data shows sharp month-on-month rises in attacks by Jewish “hilltop youth”—with official numbers contested and UN figures possibly twice as high.
• Violence includes severe attacks on people, destruction of property, maiming livestock (“gouged eyes out of sheep”), and is widely called “pogrom.”
• Key essays:
  • Finance Minister Smotrich’s downplays the scope, blaming a “small, marginal group.”
  • Haggai Segal, convicted decades ago for anti-Palestinian violence, now condemns the new generation’s viciousness:
    • Quote:
      Segal: “Hundreds of rebellious young Jews, unburdened by any sense of law or morality, are running wild day after day… If [we] do not come out against them soon … this will be proof that these hooligans have succeeded in instilling fear not only among Arabs, but among Jews as well.” [29:39]

Analysis (Judah Ari Gross):

• Explains legal/structural constraints:
  • Military is the legal authority; soldiers struggle morally to arrest fellow Jews.
  • Civil police are ineffective.
  • Administrative detentions (problematic policy) have been halted for Israelis, making law enforcement harder.
  • Many perpetrators are “at-risk youth,” groomed for violence by radical adults.
    • Quote:
      “Obviously the people doing the violence are responsible… but we as a society also have a degree of responsibility for allowing… these at-risk youth to be lured away by these negative people instead of getting them the help that they need.” [34:50]
  • Calls for welfare interventions are often dismissed but necessary.

Moral & Societal Questions (Noah Ephron, Linda Gratzine):

• Noah:
  • Describes the horror and symbolism (“pogrom,” animal cruelty) and the failure of government, police, and society.
  • Raises haunting question: are these thugs just continuing the tradition from 1948, terrorizing to clear land for Jews?
• Linda:
  • Describes the scope—villages being cleared.
  • Calls it not just a pogrom, but a “hillul hashem” (desecration of God's name).
  • Points out settler (and Diaspora) leaders’ growing condemnation, but demands more action and accountability.
    • Quote:
      Linda: “Except for very recently, there has been no condemnation from the settler leadership. ... But I want to see, you know, widespread condemnation. ... The settler leaders know who these people are in most [cases]. We have to do better. I think we can do better, and we have to do better.” [43:47]
• Judah:
  • Notes over 3,500 Diaspora Jewish leaders have signed letters urging Israeli leaders to act.
  • Acknowledges the provocative claim that violence correlates with a decrease in Palestinian attacks, but insists this isn’t justification.

Conclusion:

• Noah:
  • Moral condemnation must be categorical, not utilitarian:
    • “We do not go and beat innocent people. We don't harm innocent people. It's not a tool that is available to us because it is so morally loathsome to us.” [47:21]
• Judah:
  • Wonders whether only elections and leadership change will bring real accountability.

5. Discussion 2: "Our Exodus As..." – What Is the Message of Passover This Year?

[53:06] Discussion Begins

Noah frames the Seder as an annual reinvention of the Exodus, with the story always retold in light of present-day realities (drawing on Michael Walzer’s "Exodus and Revolution").

Judah Ari Gross:

• With young children at home, focuses on two themes:
  1. Transformation:
     - The Exodus as the moment of becoming a people, relevant as Israeli/Jewish society undergoes radical change.
  2. Surviving Adversity:
     - V’hi She’Amda (In every generation, they rise up against us, and the Holy One saves us)—now more poignant after Oct. 7. - The story is not how to survive, but “how do we come out of this a better people?”
     • [54:55 – 59:02]

Linda Gratzine:

• Fascinated by the obligation to “tell the story to yourself”—the healing, affirming power of narrative.
  • Emphasizes resilience and warns against the seduction of revenge:
    • “Being an advocate for Jewish survival and fighting for your survival doesn't mean that you have to kind of be sucked into this cycle of revenge, which I think is as bad for the person as for the person that it's perpetrated on.” [59:06–61:16]

Noah Ephron:

• Struggles with the always-beset message of V’hi She’Amda, worries it turns every enemy into an eternal metaphysical foe (“Hamas becomes Haman”).
• Cites Walzer: the real lesson is that we’re still in the wilderness—the reality of Israel is not the Promised Land, but the journey, full of uncertainty and unfinished work.
  • “Where we've gotten is not where so far is not where we've … where we're going. … What you see is the desert. … The Exodus is just the Exodus. It's not the getting there.” [61:16–66:04]

Judah (Response):

• Shares a resilience model: the healthiest communal stories feature “oscillations”—periods of suffering and recovery—which helps process trauma and find hope. - “The most resilient narrative structure is oscillating … there's always going to be some … but we're going to make it through.” [66:04–67:35]

6. Vada Country: Signs of Israeli Life in Wartime

[70:51] Segment Begins

Judah:

• “Let all who are hungry come and eat” (Ha Lachma Anya) becomes more real as his family opens their Seder to stranded friends and non-Jewish students.

Linda:

• Two vignettes:
  1. Buying a last-minute ticket back to Israel for the war—security only asks why. Her answer, “I need to get back for the war,” is deemed sufficient.
  2. In war-torn Metula, a resilient café owner insists on serving coffee only in disposable cups, ready for the next siren:
     • “If there's a siren, then you can just take the coffee with you and it won't get cold. … That's resilience.” [77:11]

Noah:

• Couldn’t travel due to the war, so attends a hybrid science/religion seminar via Zoom.
• Moved by a story from a Jerusalem physicist whose deep TMS device for depression is named “H coil” for hesed (lovingkindness), connecting scientific healing to spiritual values and the ancient quest for understanding and compassion.
  • “The H, what it stands for is hesed, which is the Hebrew word for, well, what the King James Bible translates as loving kindness. … The maybe too pretty thought how … it is a short distance between what Gabi Pell’s group of physicists and neurologists … are doing … and what Avraham Abulafia, the great rabbi, creator of ecstatic Kabbalah, was doing in Jerusalem 750 years ago.” [77:11–end]

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “If we are so similar, how were we ever so far apart?” — Iranian traveler (imaginary), [00:18]
• “Next year in peace for everyone. Also the Gazans, and also the Iranians, and also the Kurds, and also the Syrians, ... and all of us next year in peace.” — Roxanne Halper, [18:03]
• “These people say that they're religious. And except for very recently, there has been no condemnation from the settler leadership... But I want to see widespread condemnation. ... We have to do better.” — Linda Gratzine, [43:47]
• “What we learn is that all of Israel is a society that only values human life if it's Jewish … and any attempt on the part of Israelis to say otherwise is mere apolog[y]. … I don't think that that is what we learn from this.” — Noah Ephron, [39:31]
• “The most resilient … narrative structure is oscillating, is ups and downs … There's a certain depressing aspect … that there's always going to be the people rising up to destroy us. But … we’re going to make it through.” — Judah Ari Gross, [66:04]
• “Being an advocate for Jewish survival … doesn't mean that you have to be sucked into this cycle of revenge.” — Linda Gratzine, [59:06]
• “All we are is in the desert. … We have nothing final. … You shouldn’t be so surprised that everything is so tenuous and so fearful and … unclear, because you’re wandering through the desert.” — Noah Ephron, [61:16–66:04]

Key Timestamps

• 00:18 – Opening: Viral “Tehran to Tel Aviv” video, hope and irony
• 05:13 – Missile sirens and Passover shopping
• 10:14 – Passover under fire: personal stories from across Israel
• 19:06 – Main topics introduction: Settler violence and retelling the Exodus
• 23:25 – Discussion 1 Begins: West Bank settler violence
• 31:01 – Structural analysis: policing, military, society (Judah)
• 41:51 – The scale and response to violence (Linda)
• 53:06 – Discussion 2 Begins: The meaning of the Exodus this year
• 59:02–66:04 – Multiple interpretations: transformation, resilience, wandering
• 70:51 – What a Country: Seder hospitality and daily resilience stories

Tone & Style

• Mix of humor, sorrow, and deep reflection: passionate, engaged, sometimes breezy, often emotional.
• Blending of personal anecdotes, current events, and philosophical debate.
• Emphasis on the ongoing tension between existential dread and the hope for transformation, justice, and peace.

Conclusion

This episode offers an intimate, raw, and thoughtful glimpse into Israeli society on the eve of Passover, under extraordinary stress but striving for meaning, connection, and a future of peace. The hosts examine their responsibilities as citizens, parents, and storytellers—facing both the “Egypt within us” and the transformative hope embodied by the Seder table.

For Further Engagement

• Listen to referenced podcasts: “Madlik” (on Gaza border kibbutz Haggadot), “Orthodox Conundrum.”
• Read Michael Walzer’s “Exodus and Revolution.”
• Seek out the “V’hi She’Amda” songs by Eden Ben Zaken and Yonatan Razel for modern musical interpretations.

For full context and emotional nuance, listening to the original episode is highly recommended.