蜜芽传媒

On this day, twenty-five years ago, a defining legal battle reached its conclusion in a London courtroom. The libel trial between Holocaust denier David Irving and Deborah Lipstadt, alongside her publisher, Penguin Books, was not just a dispute between two sides. It was a battle between truth and falsehood; between history and its deliberate distortion.

In the trial, the defence showed how Irving had intentionally manipulated facts to fit his agenda of diminishing Holocaust crimes. After several months of interrogating the evidence, Justice Charles Gray 鈥榮 judgment was unequivocal: Irving was a falsifier of history. A Holocaust denier. A propagandist for antisemitism.

This was not just a victory in the fight against anti-Jewish hatred. It was a victory for all who cherish truth. Because history, when rewritten in order to deceive, leads to moral blindness. And moral blindness leads to injustice, oppression, and ultimately, tragedy.

Today, when one needs no more than a social media account and some home recording equipment to become a global influencer, the distortion of truth once again threatens to shape reality. The festival of Passover, which begins this weekend, has at its heart the antidote to the scourge of falsehood.

Passover is our festival of questions. For more than three millennia, on this festival, we have recounted the famous story of the Israelite exodus from Egyptian slavery. But not by lecture or sermon. Instead, every facet of the Passover meal is designed to provoke questions. We eat unusual foods, sing unusual songs and, at the heart of it all, we pose the piercing, recurring questions: 鈥淔or what purpose?鈥� 鈥淲hy?鈥�

It is a sacred task to ask, probe and explore, with the utmost integrity. Not simply to accept things as read. To question is not necessarily to reject or to undermine. Rather, it is seen by our intensely discursive tradition as a way of refining our understanding and uncovering the truth.

The Nobel Laureate, Israel Rabi, explained how his mother had made him a brilliant scientist: 鈥淎fter school, every other mother would ask her child: 鈥楽o? Did you learn anything today?鈥� But not my mother. 鈥業si,鈥� she would say, 鈥楧id you ask a good question today?鈥欌��.

Passover inspires us not only to retell our story, but also to relearn how to ask. Let us all honour the courage of those who, like Deborah Lipstadt, examine evidence, test assumptions, and refuse to let truth be silenced.

Because in every generation, truth must be defended. And the surest path to it begins with a question.

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