Welcome to our seder!

Welcome to our community-style seder! Our Haggadah is based on the traditional Haggadah, but this is not a traditional seder. For one, it is not on the traditional seder night; tonight is the second night of Pesach, and traditionally in Eretz Israel we only celebrate on the first night. Traditionally, it is forbidden to write during the seder because of the laws of Yom Tov; however, in our Haggadah you will find spaces for your own reflections. We have left a lot of the traditional text out with the hope of making space more space for ourselves at the table. We are different people, from different places, with different Jewish (and non-Jewish) backgrounds. Tonight, we are coming together to celebrate and draw strength from the beauty of our tradition.

There may be aspects of this Haggadah that make you uncomfortable. You may feel like something is missing--feel free to jump in and add! You may feel overwhelmed by unfamiliar texts or concepts--feel free to ask questions, or take time for yourself to peruse the text at your own pace or step out for a break. As much as possible, though, we ask for your presence. Each person coming to the table tonight is an integral part of making the seder everything it can be.

Most of our seder will involve volunteers reading aloud from the Haggadah. However, we want to encourage lots of questions and reflections from you! To help ensure that, you will find two things on the table:

1) some snacks to help keep your hunger at bay while we work through the Haggadah text, and

2) brightly-colored candies.

Those candies are for you to give to anyone who you think asks an insightful question or makes an insightful comment through the course of the night. Obviously, this seder is not a competition to see who is the most insightful, but it can be hard to speak up, and the candies are a way to show appreciation for positive contributions.

Are there any other norms we would like to establish for our time together?

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haggadah Section: Introduction