This next part of the seder is pretty long - and after it, we'll get to eat! We want to invite you to take a 5-10 minute break to get food ready to warm, grab a writing utensil and paper for a drawing activity we'll be doing, and do anything else you need to do.

On pesach, we are commanded to avoid all leavened grain, as the Israelites did not have time to allow their bread to rise when they left Mitzrayim.  The millenia-old tradition which we observe tonight was born of necessity,  

We read together, as one person holds up the remaining Matzah:

This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in Mitzrayim.  Let all who are hungry come and eat.  This year, we are here. Next year may we be on unoccupied land.  This year we are not free because not all people are free.  Next year, may all be free.” [Adapted from the Schechter Haggadah]

Community Member:

In the world today there are many who are so pressed-down that they have not even this bread of oppression to eat. We remember people in Palestine, at home, and all over the world where capitalism and imperialism have caused poverty and starvation. There are so many who are hungry and cannot come and eat with us tonight. Therefore we say to them:

We read together:

“we set aside this bread as a token that we owe you righteousness and justice, and we will fulfill it.”  To ourselves we say: not by bread alone but by all that is brought forth by the mouth of Adonai, lives the human; share your bread with the hungry, says our tradition. [Love and Justice in Times of War pg. 40, originally from the Cut-and-Paste Haggadah plagiarized by Lee Winkleman and The Shalom Seders: Three Haggadot compiled by New Jewish Agenda]


haggadah Section: Maggid - Beginning