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Freedom Seder- Ten Plagues
Contributed by Shalom

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

We will recite THE PLAGUES of ancient story. We welcome you to call out the plague of today that for you echoes with the ancient warning:

[At each table, the group pauses after naming each plague, and the people drop grape-juice from the cup onto the plate. Have someone call out the next plague listed, and wait for communal response and the naming of other contemporary plagues. After this exploration, some invited speakers will name the ten most dangerous plagues of today.] — Water into Blood (Pollution & privatization of water; the flood that destroyed New Orleans) — Frogs (Frogs — dead & maimed by chemicals) — Vermin (Poverty) — Beasts (Extinction of thousands of species) — Mad cow disease — Boils/Pestilence (Collapse of health system; disappearance of health insurance; asthma epidemic; environmental cancer; neglect of people with HIV and AIDS) — Hail (Radical climate change, global scorching) — Locusts (Famine, genetically modified foods, patented seeds) — Endless night (Plague of blindness to each other, failure of empathy: no one can see us, we cannot see others. Prison system. Collapse of educational system—no "enlightenment." Electrical blackouts.) — Slaying of the First-born (War, terrorism, torture, prisons, AIDS, gun-violence dead, especially children). [Recite some of the names of children and adults killed in urban gun violence or dead of homelessness, those killed in the Twin Towers, in Iraq (both US soldiers and Iraqis), Israelis, Palestinians, AIDS] [Also recite names of some of those killed while struggling to make change happen: ] Martin Luther King, El-Hajj Al-Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X), John and Robert Kennedy, Oscar Romero, Medgar Evers, Chaney, Schwerner, & Goodman, Viola Liuzzo, Allison Krause, Orlando Letelier, Ronnie Karpen Moffitt, Harvey Milk, Barnett Slepian, Yitzhak Rabin, Anwar Sadat, John Africa and the MOVE family, Nizah Morris — [and others named by those present]

Someone reads: More than 2500 years ago, the Prophet Malachi spoke words that ring with danger and hope in the ears of our own generation: " A day is coming that will burn like an oven, turning to ashes all the arrogant. But for those who revere my Name, the Interbreathing of all life, there is a remedy: A sun of justice, righteousness, shall rise with healing in its wings, its rays. Here! Before the coming of the awesome day of Yahh, the Breath of Life, I will send you Elijah the Prophet to turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents, lest the earth be utterly destroyed."

From this ancient prophecy we today hear the danger of global scorching that may burn like a furnace not only the arrogant who have brought this danger on us but all the interwoven web of life on the earth; we hear the remedy of turning to solar and wind power ; we hear the need to bring the generations of humanity together to honor and heal the Breath of Life -- the breathing of oxygen and carbon dioxide through which what we breathe in is what the trees breathe out; what the trees breathe in is what we breathe out.

This danger is the greatest plague we face. And these are the forms and the Pharaohs of the plagues that afflict us today:

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INVITED SPEAKERS TALK ABOUT TEN PLAGUES OF TODAY: such as drought, intensifying hurricanes, coastal flooding, Himalayas' melt-off, etc All recite: Barukh atah YHWH elohenu ruakh ha-olam boray p'ri hagafen. Blessed are You, the Interbreathing Breath of Life, Who creates the fruit of the vine. [We drink from the first cup, the cup of awareness.]**
haggadah Section: -- Ten Plagues
Source: SEDER FOR THE EARTH: Facing the Plagues & Pharaohs of Our Generation, Shalom Center

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