Opening Song
(Sung to the tune of "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel")
Oh, welcome everybody.
Time to gather round.
We will tell the story.
We'll smile and then we'll frown.  
Oh Pesach, Pesach, Pesach
We were slaves but now we're free.
Oh Pesach, Pesach, Pesach
Let's tell our history!

We all know about Passover, that holiday when we Jews whip out our flat, cracker-like matzah, talk about the massive exodus from Egypt, and drink a whole lot of Manischewitz wine. As it happens, though, there are a few other things you might want to know about Passover! Here are some facts about the holiday that you probably never knew:

Passover is an oldie. Judaism celebrates a lot of holidays. Some are fairly recent, such as Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, founded only 66 years ago when Israel was declared a state. But the oldest of them all? Passover! The very first Passover was celebrated in Egypt itself more than 3,300 years ago and marked the first holiday the Jews ever celebrated.

The world’s biggest matzah ball was really big.You thought your mother made them well? Well she’s up against some competition. The world largest matzah ball was made in the heart of New York City in 2009. Chef Anthony Sylvestry managed to make a matzah ball measuring 22.9” wide and weighing a whopping 267 lbs!  

Sometimes there are seven foods on the seder plate. The traditional seder plate is a circular plate with six spots on it, each to hold a different symbolic food to be eaten during the Passover meal. In recent years, a new tradition has begun to form – a seder plate with seven spots instead of six. The new seventh food? An orange. The orange is said to signify fruitfulness, and the action of spitting out the seeds represents “spitting out” hate and discrimination in our communities. 

Passover is a day of commemoration.On Passover 2,000 years ago, a nation of Jews escaped Egypt through the splitting of the Red Sea. On Passover 149 years ago, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Many Jewish Americans were in synagogue at the time of the assassination, both to observe Passover and to celebrate the end of the Civil War, and the American Jewish Historical Society notes that synagogue bimahs "were quickly draped in black and, instead of Passover melodies, the congregations chanted Yom Kippur hymns." 

Nepal is home to the world’s largest Passover seder.The world’s largest Passover seder, boasting more than 1,000 participants, is held yearly in Kathmandu, Nepal. Why Nepal? The country is overflowing with young Israeli travelers who have recently finished their army service, and when it comes time for Passover, some want to be reminded of their mom’s chicken soup or experience the familiar crunch of matzah. Other attendees simply hear of this massive event and feel compelled to travel to Nepal to experience the holiday in such a unique way. Rabbis fly in to lead the seder, and tens of participants show up in advance to help prepare for the guests. Now that’s a lot of company!

Take Us out of Egypt (sung to the tune of Take me out to the ball game")

Take us out of Egpyt

Free us from slavery

Bake us some matzah in a haste

Don't worry 'bout flavor--Give no thought to taste.

Oh it's rush, rush, rush, to the Red Sea

If we don't cross it's a shame

For it's ten plagues, Down and you're out

At the Pessah history game.

A Passover Song [Sung to the tune of "These are a few of my favorite things"]

Cleaning and cooking and so many dishes

Out with the hametz, no pasta, no knishes

These are a few of our Passover things.

When the plagues strike

When the lice bite

When we're feeling sad We simply remember our Passover things And then we don't feel so bad.

Matzoh and karpas and chopped up haroset Shankbones and Kiddish and Yiddish neuroses Tante who kvetches and uncle who sings These are a few of our Passover things.

When the plagues strike When the lice bite When we're feeling sad We simply remember our Passover things And then we don't feel so bad.

Motzi and maror and trouble with Pharoahs Famines and locusts and slaves with wheelbarrows Matzoh balls floating and eggshell that cling These are a few of our Passover things.

When the plagues strike When the lice bite When we're feeling sad We simply remember our Passover things And then we don't feel so bad.

On all other nights, we get biscuits and rolls,
Fluffy and puffy and full of air holes.
Why on this night, why, tell me why,
Only this flat stuff that’s always so dry.

On all other nights, we eat all kinds of greens,
And I’m starting to like them – except lima beans.
Why on this night, I ask on my knees,
Do we eat stuff so bitter it makes grownups wheeze?

On all other nights, we dip vegies just once –
Just try dipping twice and they’ll call you a dunce.
Why on this night, why, tell me true,
Why double-dipping’s the right thing to do.

On all other nights, we sit up when we munch.
You’ll choke if you slump! You’ll croak if you hunch!
Why on this night, if anyone knows,
Do we get to recline on my mom’s good pillows.

Why is this night so different from most?
Why do we do things so odd and so gross?
Why do we tell the same stories and stuff?
Because when it’s Pesach, it’s never enough!

As we rejoice at our deliverance from slavery, we acknowledge that our freedom was hard-earned. We regret that our freedom came at the cost of the Egyptians’ suffering, for we are all human beings made in the image of God. We pour out a drop of wine for each of the plagues as we recite them. Dip a finger or a spoon into your wine glass for a drop for each plague.

As we read the 10 plagues, we spill drops of wine from our cups, mourning the suffering the Egyptians endured so that we could be free. This year, as these drops spread across our plates, let us turn our hearts toward the millions of people around the world suffering today’s plagues of hatred, prejudice, baseless violence and war.

Because the Israelites had ticked G-d off, they did not get to go directly to the Promised Land.  Instead they wandered in the desert for forty years.  Which is a lot of wandering, when you think about it.

Somehow after forty years, they were STILL IN THE DESERT.  This suggests they were not wandering in anything close to a straight line.  

by this point, Moses was over one hundred years old, and most of the other original Israelites were dead.  The rest had been born in the desert and after all the wandering were getting pretty cranky.  'Are we there yet?' they constantly asked Moses.  But Moses was not discouraged, because by this point he had basically the same hearing ability as a crowbar.

So long story short, they FINALLY reached the Promised Land, but it turned out that Moses was not allowed to enter because of a problem with his passport.

'Done Worry about me,' he told the Israelites, 'I'll just go up on Mount Nebo and die.  Alone. After all I've done for you.  It's fine. Really.'

So the rest of the Israelites entered the Promised Land, which turned out, G-d had not mentioned this, to be already occupied by a number of tribes, including the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Kardashians, Mohicans, Kiwanis, and a small but enthusiastic roving band of Mormons.  Also, instead of milk or honey, there were rocks and venomous scorpions the size of Yorkshire terriers.  But other than that, it was everything the Israelites had hoped for, and for the next three thousand years, they lived there in peace and harmony except for getting nearly wiped out on a pretty much a monthly basis.  And that is why we are grateful.

The Passover Haggadah recounts ten plagues that afflicted Egyptian society. In our tradition, Passover is the season in which we imagine our own lives within the story and the story within our lives. Accordingly, we turn our thoughts to the many plagues affecting our society today. Our journey from slavery to redemption is ongoing, demanding the work of our hearts and hands. Here are ten “modern plagues”:  

Homelessness

In any given year, about 3.5 million people are likely to experience homelessness, about a third of them children, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. A recent study by the U.S. Conference of Mayors showed the majority of major cities lack the capacity to shelter those in need and are forced to turn people away. We are reminded time and again in the Torah that the Exodus is a story about a wandering people, once suffering from enslavement, who, through God’s help, eventually find their way to their homeland. As we inherit this story, we affirm our commitment to pursue an end to homelessness.

Hunger

About 49 million Americans experience food insecurity, 16 million of them children. While living in a world blessed with more than enough food to ensure all of God’s children are well nourished, on Passover we declare, “Let all who are hungry come and eat!” These are not empty words, but rather a heartfelt and age-old prayer to end the man-made plague of hunger.

Inequality

Access to affordable housing, quality health care, nutritious food and quality education is far from equal. The disparity between the privileged and the poor is growing, with opportunities for upward mobility still gravely limited. Maimonides taught, “Everyone in the house of Israel is obligated to study Torah, regardless of whether one is rich or poor, physically able or with a physical disability.” Unequal access to basic human needs, based on one’s real or perceived identity, like race, gender or disability, is a plague, antithetical to the inclusive spirit of the Jewish tradition.

Greed

In the Talmud, the sage Ben Zoma asks: “Who is wealthy? One who is happy with one’s lot.” These teachings evidence what we know in our conscience—a human propensity to desire more than we need, to want what is not ours and, at times, to allow this inclination to conquer us, leading to sin. Passover urges us against the plague of greed, toward an attitude of gratitude.

Discrimination and hatred

The Jewish people, as quintessential victims of hatred and discrimination, are especially sensitized to this plague in our own day and age. Today, half a century after the civil rights movement in the United States, we still are far from the actualization of the dream Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. articulated in Washington, D.C., a vision rooted in the message of our prophets. On Passover, we affirm our own identity as the once oppressed, and we refuse to stand idly by amid the plagues of discrimination and hatred.

Silence amid violence

Every year, 4.8 million cases of domestic violence against American women are reported. Each year, more than 108,000 Americans are shot intentionally or unintentionally in murders, assaults, suicides and suicide attempts, accidental shootings and by police intervention. One in five children has seen someone get shot. We do not adequately address violence in our society, including rape, sex trafficking, child abuse, domestic violence and elder abuse, even though it happens every day within our own communities.

Environmental destruction

Humans actively destroy the environment through various forms of pollution, wastefulness, deforestation and widespread apathy toward improving our behaviors and detrimental civic policies. Rabbi Nachman of Brezlav taught, “If you believe you can destroy, you must believe you can repair.” Our precious world is in need of repair, now more than ever.

Stigma of mental illness

One in five Americans experiences mental illness in a given year. Even more alarming, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, nearly two-thirds of people with a diagnosable mental illness do not seek treatment, and minority communities are the least likely to search for or have access to mental health resources. Social stigma toward those with mental illness is a widespread plague. Historically, people with mental health issues have suffered from severe discrimination and brutality, yet our society is increasingly equipped with the knowledge and resources to alleviate the plague of social stigma and offer critical support.

Ignoring refugees

We are living through the worst refugee crisis since the Holocaust. On this day, we remember that “we were foreigners in the land of Egypt,” and God liberated us for a reason: to love the stranger as ourselves. With the memory of generations upon generations of our ancestors living as refugees, we commit ourselves to safely and lovingly opening our hearts and our doors to all peace-loving refugees.

Powerlessness

When faced with these modern plagues, how often do we doubt or question our own ability to make a difference? How often do we feel paralyzed because we do not know what to do to bring about change? How often do we find ourselves powerless to transform the world as it is into the world as we know it should be, overflowing with justice and peace?

Written in collaboration with Rabbi Matthew Soffer of Temple Israel of Boston

10 Plagues Activity - You get to be the Plague!

In this activity, 10 volunteers have an opportunity to be the baddest, scariest plagues out there. The whole Seder table raps the Chorus, and then the Seder leader shouts “One!” (and so on) and each Plague volunteer shouts out his or her plague during their turn.

Seder leader (and table) sings this Chorus (together):

Moses at the Red Sea, like “who’s gonna follow me?”
Pharaoh’s in the tide, we gonna ride, to our destiny,
In back of me, so sad to see, them bodies in the Red Sea
Chariots get buried, b-b-buried in the Red Sea
Pharaoh sat and laughed when a staff became a snake,
Too long we’ve been your slaves, just let us go and pray,
Said “don’t make this mistake,”
No pardon his heart was hardened,
So started what we regard as: the days of 10 plagues...

PLAGUE ONE:
(Leader says: One!)
Blood in the river gonna shiver, gonna freak out, lips take a sip - now there’s blood in your mouth!

PLAGUE TWO:
(Leader says: Two!)
Frogs on your beds in your house on your plate, don’t matter what’s for dinner - better like frog legs!

PLAGUE THREE:
(Leader says: Three!)
Gnats buzz buzz watch the dust turn to bugs,
itch itch hard to think - with all the lice in your mugs!

PLAGUE FOUR:
(Leader says: Four!)
Beasts roam your streets when you step outside, there’s a tiger on your tail - nowhere to hide!

PLAGUE FIVE:
(Leader says: Five!)
Death of your livestock, their flesh dries up,
b-b-bodies in your barn - Pharaoh when you gonna wise up?

CHORUS

PLAGUE SIX:
(Leader says: Six!)
Boils on your flesh no less than torture, careful ‘bout the ash in the air - it’ll scorch ya!

PLAGUE SEVEN:
(Leader says: Seven!)
Hail rains down - beats your brains down,
like a message from the heavens - better lay our chains down!

PLAGUE EIGHT:
(Leader says: Eight!)
Locusts from the coast you can hear their wings click, eating crops, eating trees - til’ they’re used as toothpicks!

PLAGUE NINE:
(Leader says: Nine!)
Darkness - dispatch - 3 days pitch black,
remember when this started - and you thought it was just witchcraft!

PLAGUE TEN:
(Leader says: Death!)
Death of the first born how did it come to this?
Ten is what it took - so we all would remember it!

We are going to conclude our dinner tonight with a celebratory toast - a l’chaim.

Rather than filling our own cup tonight, though, and focusing on us as individuals, let’s fill someone else’s cup and recognize that, as a family and group of friends, we have the resources to help each other and those in our community if we are willing to share our resources and collaborate – whether those resources are time, money, skills, or any of the other gifts we bring to one another.

Many of us around the table may already share our resources in different ways - volunteering in our communities, providing pro bono services, donating to charities, or by advocating or lobbying officials. For others we may still be exploring the ways we’re hoping to share our resources and are looking for outlets to do so.

We are now going to fill our 4th cup of wine and I want to invite you to fill someone else’s cup instead of your own. As you fill someone else’s cup, let’s share with each other our answer to the following:

How can I help in changing the world?