Welcome to The Spiegel Family Seder. Tonight will mark the 29th time we have gathered together to recite and experience the Passover Story. For nearly three decades our Seders have ranged from going "by the book" with the traditional Art Scroll Haggadah, to more progressively celebrating Jewish Women and feminism with an orange on the Seder plate, to engaging in political discussions about universal health care, the anti-Semitic and fraudulent BDS Movement and learning the intricacies and critical importance of Israel's Iron Dome which protects our Homeland from terrorist missiles.

We have even challenged whether the classic Passover Story itself actually happened. What we have learned over all these years and all these experiences is that it does not matter whether the "Story" itself is true, but whether we all personally experience, are moved - and ultimately transformed - by that story.

All of us walked in tonight with our own personal demons which enslave us in a variety of unique ways. Whether we are struggling with physical or psychological disabilities, chemical dependency, self-esteem issues or our own forms of relationship or employment bondage, it through this Story - and all of the truths we elicit from it - that we can all move away from our own personal enslavement to finally reach the Promised Land which is different for each and every one of us.

Hag Pesach Sameach. Let's begin this year's journey . . . . .


haggadah Section: Introduction