As we sit down to officially welcome in the holiday of Pesach and welcome in spring. I hope to commemorate the Jewish commitment to light in times of darkness. 

As was written,
our trials can be lengthy:
forty years of desert wandering,
forty days of shelter in the ark.

But I also think of  Moses
forty nights on the mountain,
perhaps cowering at first,
shivering in a crevice,
surrounded by thundering voice

but ultimately
open, receiving.

He carried back radiance,
a glimpse of presence.

Now I search for radiance
but in bird flight,
in the changing colors of hours,
in beloved voices,
creative ways of helping, connecting,
prayers sung from balconies, extending
hearts beyond walls.

For walls are temporary, porous
to the radiance

that must pass between us

-Cathleen Cohen 

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה אַדֹנָ-י אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶׁל יום טוב

          Baruch a-ta A-do-nay Elo-hei-nu me-lech ha-o-lam a-sher ki-di-sha-nu bi-mitz-vo-tav vi-tzi-va-noo li-had-leek ner shel Yom Tov.


haggadah Section: Introduction