Welcome to our Passover Seder 5781.

It is hard to come up against a second Passover under a pandemic.  And yet, we now know what we did not a year ago, when we faced with such raw emotion our first seder apart, possibly even alone.  That it is possible to be together even when physically apart, that it is possible to create meaningful ceremony, share the reflections of our hearts, and join in celebration sitting around the seder table virtually.

The Passover seder is both past and present, and our future. It’s an old story and a very new story.  Last year, as our own plague, the 11th one, unfolded in real time, we felt the present acutely. A story of Biblical proportions was upon us. Yet we also understood what our ancestors fleeing the Narrow Place, Mitzrayim, might have felt like: the journey towards freedom was terrifying, they had the need for deep faith, and the need for one another. 

(And, for the first time, we could see how a ruler could harden his heart.) 

This year, we can begin to see the shape of the future.  Many are waiting for their life-giving vaccine shots that we hope and pray will allow us to join together at the same table next year.  This year we continue to celebrate the Passover in different homes; next year may we experience the seder together at the same table.


haggadah Section: Introduction