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Cup 2
Contributed by Isaiah Russell

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

One of the primary purposes of the Passover seder is to make us feel as if we personally experienced the exodus from Egypt and the redemption from slavery to freedom. Dayenu, which we just sang aloud,provides a powerful contemporary outlook on life;a call to mindfulness about the way we currently lead our lives.

We live in an era when capitalism is our state (and increasingly global) religion. Consumption is unfettered by any internal sense of restraint, from the amount of soda we can drink to how much money Wall Street executives can make. We live in a world where it is okay that the richest 85 people in the world have total wealth equal to that of the poorest 3.5 billion people on the planet! Dayenu reminds us that there is another way. Judaism offers an outlook on wealth, consumption, and sufficiency that is very counter-cultural. The meaning of this is that one is rich if he is content with what he has.Even more austere, the Talmud instructs: “An individual who can eat barley bread but eats wheat bread is guilty of transgressing the law of bal tashchit (unlawful waste). Plus, Sandy and Zelly are strictly gluten-free and eat like rabbits anyhow. However, if we are stoned from two joints, why roll the third? Moderation is key.

Judaism is not, to be sure, an ascetic religion. We are encouraged to carve out occasions for excess, for enjoying the finer parts of living—on Shabbat, holidays, and other joyous occasions. But the wisdom of Judaism is that, if we want to experience delight on these special occasions, we also need moments of restraint. It is the juxtaposition of restraint and largess that creates a life of meaning. Beyond the individual experience, we also are becoming increasingly aware of the global consequences of championing unbridled materialism over a sense of sufficiency. From income inequality to climate change, our refusal to entertain limits on what we do and how much we consume are wreaking destructive consequences. By returning to a sense of Dayenu, of thinking deeply about what is enough, we have the potential to change ourselves and our world. May we be blessed, on this Pesah and beyond, to replace the idolatry of consumption with an embrace of all that we have. 

On that note, let's roll our second joint of the evening and pour our next glass of wine in preparation for our lovely meal.
haggadah Section: -- Cup #2 & Dayenu

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