Four Questions - Four Themes | Passover haggadah by Jessica Jacobs

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Group 1: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

1) We eat matzah as a symbol of the urgency of redemption. The Israelites did not have time to wait for their bread to rise-- the moment to act was upon them. What is the urgency in addressing the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the occupation of Gaza and the West bank (The occupation is almost 51 years old this year.)

2) We eat maror to remember the bitterness of oppression. In our day, many Jews feel the State of Israel is acting in the likes of the Pharaoh to the Palestinian people. How can the taste of bitter herbs inspire action to repair this broken system?

3) We recline to experience the ease of privilege. For millennia, we adopted this pose on seder night most often in contrast to Jews’ daily experience of oppression. As we recline tonight, we shall discuss the distortion of facts in the media on both sides which oversimplifies the issues and strips away the humanity of those whose lives are being impacted.

4) What’s your vision of the path the Jewish people should pursue this year, next year, and the year after that consistent with your own highest values, flowing from the Torah’s teaching that every human being is created in the image of God and deserving of deep respect and caring from us?

Group 2: Climate Justice:

The impacts of climate change are already being felt, especially by the poorest and most vulnerable who have contributed least to the causes of the problem. This is the injustice at the core of the climate problem: Those least responsible are worst affected. While the international community debates the steps to take to solve the problem — the scale of the impacts and the numbers of people affected increase. This is the argument behind climate justice and a driver for a more urgent response to the global problem, in a way that treats all people and countries fairly and ultimately prevents dangerous and irreversible climate change. (World Resources Institute)

The status quo is leaving poor, disenfranchised communities with the burden of pollution from our current energy and transportation sectors. Transitioning our society to clean energy and a sustainable built environment will not only avert climate disruption, but drastically improve public health in low income and/or minority communities.

2) We eat maror to remember the bitterness of oppression. How does local and global pollution lead certain communities to feel as though they are helplessly mistreated by the operations of outside entities (governments and international corporations)?

3) We recline to experience the ease of privilege. 55% of Americans think climate change won’t affect them, leading them to not combat it. How can we include the urgency of climate change and environmental injustice into our lives?

4)How can we help reduce environmental injustice and promote tangible climate action?

Group 3: Racial Justice

2) We eat maror to remember the bitterness of oppression. In our day the U.S. criminal justice system has become broken, disproportionately impacting people of color. Examples of this injustice include mass incarceration, police brutality, and the school to prison pipeline. How can the taste of bitter herbs inspire action to repair this broken system?

3) We recline to experience the ease of privilege. For millennia, we adopted this pose on Seder night most often in contrast to Jews’ daily experience of oppression. In our own day, many Jews feel largely at ease because of their assimilation into white culture. As we recline tonight, what are the limitations and responsibilities of those of us who carry privilege to end systemic racial injustice in our congregations, communities and country?

4) How can individuals here tonight contribute to racial justice movements such as Black Lives Matter in the UCLA and greater Los Angeles community?

Group 4: Gender Inequality

2) We eat maror to remember the bitterness of oppression. In our day, although gender inequality is seen as a thing of the past, women, transgender and queer folk are regularly disadvantaged and discriminated against. How do you think we can directly combat gender discrimination in the workplace/school?

3) We recline to experience the ease of privilege. For millennia, we adopted this pose on Seder night most often in contrast to Jews’ daily experience of oppression. In our own day, many white women are able to feel more at ease than our sisters of color because of our white or white passing privilege. How can we ensure that our feminism is intersectional and addresses all of the identities of the women we are fighting for and with? The term “intersectional,” coined by scholar and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw, is the idea that multiple identities intersect to create a whole; in order to fully understand someone’s identity, we must think of each separate identity as linked to all the others. As an example, a white Jewish woman is all three parts of her identity; she cannot simply separate her race, religion and gender when these identities intersect and interplay with one another constantly.

4) It’s easy to be theoretical when we talk about the struggle for justice. What are concrete ways that we as UCLA students can fight for gender equality?

A 5th Question

Passover is a time of remembrance but also one of renewal — of looking ahead toward the spring and new growth that will sustain us through the seasons to come. Once we spent spring in the desert. It was harsh and difficult but from that journey grew a people who have endured for centuries. What would happen if we took that journey again, not alone in the wilderness but surrounded by friends and allies, leaving no one behind?

haggadah Section: -- Four Questions

Source: Inspired by the Religious Action Center