During the telling of the story of our exodus from Egypt, we hear about a seder at B’nai Brak, at which a group of Rabbis stayed up telling the story of redemption until the time for morning prayers. Tradition has it that this seder took place during the Bar Kochba rebellion against Rome, and the seder was both a telling of past redemption from slavery and a planning meeting for their current struggle against oppression. In relating their modern struggle with the story of redemption, these rabbis lived the obligation that “in every generation the ones telling the story must see themselves as having personally been a part of the redemption from Egypt.” In every generation, we should not forget that redemption is an ongoing struggle. The seder table is the ideal place to bring multiple identities together in that the struggles for those identities as individuals and as communities are so integral to one another. We do not remove one identity to dawn another: we are all of our identities at all times. Just as we read of our past and the Jewish struggle for redemption, we relate our modern Queer struggle for recognition, freedom and acceptance. The seder is not something separate from our Queer identities but something strongly integrated-that speaks to us as a whole, multifaceted people in a celebratory and safe environment.


haggadah Section: Introduction