In meeting here tonight, we are affirming our commitment to a progressive Judaism - one that embraces our own tradition but affirms the validity and wisdom of many other traditions as well. We are not afraid to assert that within Judaism, there are riches worth preserving, and even worth teaching to those from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. We welcome to our seder those who have come to learn, and commit ourselves, as well, to using this next year to deepen our own understanding of this tradition. Ours is a tradition of tikkun olam - global healing, repair and transformation. Our spirituality is one that affirms this world, affirms the importance of the struggle for peace, justice, equality and human dignity, and affirms that all humans beings are made in the image of God and are partners with God in creating the world. Yet we also affirm a God of the universe who transcends all that which is, the God who is the force that makes possible the transformation of the world from that which has been - the various forms of slavery and oppression - to that which it ought to be: a world of freedom, liberation, and mutual caring and respect.  Tonight, we recommit ourselves to the inner struggle to know God more deeply and the outer struggle of tikkun, of healing and repair in the world. Our Passover story reminds us that it is all possible. Passover is a rejection of cynicism and a reaffirmation of our highest hopes for each other and for the world.


haggadah Section: Introduction