Welcome | Passover haggadah by Sofia Gardenswartz

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Welcome to what is my first official solo-hosted seder! As Passover has long been one of my favorite Jewish holidays, it feels really special to welcome you all to our porch and share this tradition with you.

As many of you may know, Passover is a time in which we commemorate suffering, and liberation. As my brother explained in his typical, articulate fashion in his own haggadah, "As we abstain from consuming bread and leavened products, we think about the speed with which our ancestors were forced to flee their homes in search of somewhere safe. Today, we are incredibly fortunate to live in situations of relative comfort. Passover forces us to remember a time when we were uncomfortable, all the while celebrating the company of each other." As is tradition, there is a structure to the seder (seder literally means order) that I have curated so that we may reflect on these themes in meaningful, relevant ways. All the while, we can commerate our suffering and celebrate our liberation in classic Jewish fashion, with plenty of libations and food to eat!

For starters, one aspect of the seder meal that I hope we can all embrace tonight foregrounds comfort. During the Passover seder, we are encouraged to get comfortable through sitting on pillows, leaning in our chairs, and any other means with which you can ease your burdens. As I know that times of late have been particularly stressful with COVID and the essay-that-shall-not-be-mentioned-that-rhymes-with-"rhesus," I encourage everyone tonight to make themselves comfortable however you see fit as we move past the week's stressors and into a space of community and celebration.

I learned this year that, despite the many steps in the seder, there are only two main "Mitzvot," or commandments, for this holiday:

The first, and this is a literal commandment in the seder, is to drink 4 cups of wine. Like I said, the Jews love our libations.

The second is that we re-tell the Passover story of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt. It is in effect a retelling of history, yet it changes every year as we make new connections to our contemporary context. This narrative retelling is another reason I love Passover—we are required to question existing traditions and find new meaning within them.

Despite the antiquity of the stories we'll discuss tonight, the themes feel eerily relevant (freedom, slavery, privilege, opression, and self-determination, to name a few). As is my family's custom, I've included some contemporary readings in addition to those more traditional ones. My dad is particularly fond of assigning homework to our seder guests in the form of an article that everyone reads beforehand. I've saved us from more assigned readings, but in true liberal arts spirit these readings are intended to spark thoughtful discussion about their meanings and the connections between our history and our present.

One note about our service: as you'll see, there are numerous references to "God" or "Lord" in many of the blessings. We all likely have varying comfort levels with this idea, so please feel free to approach that topic however you choose. Personally, I think of prayer as an opportunity to consider myself in relationship to the world around me, and reflect on how I might want to affirm or reasses different aspects of those connections.

At the end of the Passover service, it's traditional to recite the phrase "La'shana Ha'ba'a, B'Yerushaliem," which translates to "Next year in Jerusalem." Historically, this refers to the notion of Israel as a religious homeland that all Jews will eventually return to. More recently, some progressive Jews have updated the concluding prayer to read "La'shana ha'ba'a b'olam tzadek," or "Next year in a just world." Salvation comes not from the physical movement of people of specific religious backgrounds within specific borders and boundaries, but from the promise of justice for all.

In joining us here tonight, you're making a commitment to work towards the idea that next year we'll live in a more just world. Thank you so much for being here, and let's get started!

Sofi

haggadah Section: Introduction