The ancient rabbis loved to play word games with the text of the Torah. Through a careful examination of its phrasing, they uncovered four different instances where they imagined parents exploring the Exodus story to their children. The differences among these four verses seemed to suggest four different types of children gathered for the Seder: one Wise, one Wicked, one Simple and one Who Is Too Young To Even Ask...

What does the Wise Child ask? "What are all of these rules and laws and customs that we follow tonight?"

The tradition teaches us to answer in great detail, including all of the laws of the holiday. Modern people know that there must be more to our answers than that. When we encounter children who are hungry for knowledge, it is not sufficient to spoon-feed them all that we know. We must also encourage them to think critically and independently. That is what places them on the path to real wisdom.

What does the Wicked Child ask? "What does all of this mean to you?"

The tradition denounced this question because its phrasing suggested that this child did not want to be part of the Seder [what does this mean to you ?] We need not see it that way. Children who challenge us are not wicked. Skepticism is healthy and should be encouraged. For that reason we reject the traditional characterization of this child as wicked.

What does the Simple Child ask? "What is this?"

We all begin the process of learning as the Simple Child. We are open-minded and endlessly curious about the world. Everything is new and we want to understand as much as we can. We embrace the yearning for knowledge in our children, explaining what we can and equipping them with the means to find answers for themselves.

And what shall we say to the Child Who Is Too Young To Even Ask?

For these, our youngest and most dependent, the tradition suggest that we begin a the very beginning. In fact, that's a good suggestion for us all, and it brings us to the heart of why we are gathered tonight...the legend of how the Israelites went free from bondage.

"Some say there is also a fifth child who no longer sits at the table.

This child has fallen away by attrition and disaffection. This child has been turned away by rejection and disapproval. She is feeling sad and lonely. He is feeling angry and bitter.

Say to this child: There is always a seat at this table. Please come back to us, we cherish you forever."

Tell ol’ Pharoah to let my people go.

“Do thus and so,” did Moses say.

Let my people go.

“If not we’ll fast run away.”

Let my people go.  Chorus

We need not always weep and mourn,

Let my people go.

And wear these slav’ry chains forlorn,

Let  my people go.  Chorus.

As Israel stood by the water’s side,

Let my people go.

The waters parted, they did divide,

Let my people go. Chorus

When they had reached the other shore,

Let my people go.

Miriam led a song of triumph o’er,

Let my people go.  Chorus.

Rabbi Abraham Heschel at a conference in Chicago on religion and race in 1963: "Friends, at the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharoah and Moses. And Moses' words were, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go." While Pharoah retorted, "Whose the Lord that I should heed his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord. I will not let Israel go." The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end. Pharoah is not ready to capitulate. The Exodus began but is far from having been completed. In fact, it was easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red Sea than for a Negro to cross certain university campuses."

Some Heschel quotes:

"I felt as if my legs were praying." -- Heschel coming back home from the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights in Alabama, 1965.

"Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods. The liturgical movement must become a revolutionary movement, seeking to overthrow the forces that continue to destroy the promise, the hope, the vision." -- Heschel, 1970 (in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, Rabbi Abraham Heschel and Susannah Heschel, 1997.)

“[In a free society] Few are guilty, but all are responsible.” -- Heschel in his book The Prophets, 1962.
 

“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” 

“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.” 
 

Now we are ready to tell a very old legend that our ancestors have been telling for a long time.

In the beginning, our ancestors came from a place called Aramea. From there they traveled to the land of Canaan and they made that new land their home.

Then there came a time of famine and some of our ancestors traveled to Egypt in search of food. The king of Egypt was called Pharoah and he welcomed our ancestors, known as Hebrews, and let them share in his prosperity.

Generations passed and a new Pharoah rose to power who was cruel to the Hebrews and enslaved them. According to legend, he feared that the Hebrews would rise up against him. His advisers prophesied that the Hebrews’ future leader might not even be born yet. So Pharoah decreed that all the Hebrew baby boys be drowned immediately although they were harmless and innocent.

Now this greatly terrified the Hebrews, and many decided to stop having children altogether. But along came a child named Miriam, who challenged her parents and said, “Pharoah would kill only your sons, but you would sacrifice your daughters as well!?” Her parents heeded her words. Soon they gave birth to a baby boy, and according to legend, the midwives, Shifra and Pu'ah, refused to comply with Pharoah's decree and Moses mother hid him in a basket in the bulrushes beside the river Nile to protect him from Pharoah’s guards. The baby's sister Miriam tracked him all the way to the palace where the Pharoah's daughter was bathing in the river.

Pharoah’s daughter found the Hebrew baby and defied her father’s order to have him drowned. She rescued him instead and said, “You will be my son,” and she gave him the name Moses, which means “drawn out of the waters.”

Moses was accepted as a member of the royal family, but when he went among the Hebrews he felt strangely at home. One day, while investigating the suffering of the Israelites, he witnessed the horror up close when he came upon a taskmaster abusing a slave. He intervened, killing the cruel overseer. Fearing that he would be found out, Moses fled.

When he had put sufficient distance between himself and Egypt, Moses settled down. Soon he married into a kindly family. He became a shepherd and moved on with his life. One day he came upon a fiery bush that burned but was not consumed. From this bush came a miraculous revelation from the God of the Israelites instructing him to return to Egypt. there he was to approach the Pharoah and demand that he set the Israelites free.

Then the time came when Moses was ready to challenge Pharoah. He demanded that Pharoah set the Hebrews free. But Pharoah refused, and his rule became even harsher. Moses tried diplomacy. Then he tried magic. Then he tried plagues. This seemed to work! But then Pharoah hardened his heart and took back his permission to let the Hebrew people go.

Under the cover of darkness, Moses and his sister Miriam led the Hebrews out of Egypt and our people escaped to freedom. Legend tells us that they left in such haste that they didn’t have time for their bread to rise, which is why they ate unleavened bread in its place.

The racism and anti-Semitism of the Exodus story are overt and extreme. So, too, are the hate crimes born of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, misogyny, etc... that we encounter in the headlines of current news from around the world which horrify us.

However, there is an insidious and less transparent type of stereotyping that lives inside each of us which is known as "unconscious" or "implicit' bias.  As neuroscientists tell us, we are "hardwired" in the limbic systems of our brains (amygdala) to encounter to unfamiliar, "foreign" stimuli --that which causes anxiety with a "fight, flight, or freeze" response.  This unconscious response primes us to react with bias that we don't even realize!   Current work by social scientists and others is revealing that our minds naturally form stereotypes which are"...reinforced by media representations that pair certain demographic characteristics -- gender, race, ethnicity with specific roles in society" (Glaser, "How to Reduce Racial Profiling," Greater Good Science Center Newsletter, 5/28/15)  

He cites some examples of implicit biases:

Black -------> Criminals

Female ------> Teachers/Nurses

White men --> CEOs

Asian ------------> Dry Cleaners

Unconscious bias, if unacknowledged and address plays out in a variety of ways usually with grave consequences. For example, the number of police shootings of unarmed and/or non-aggressive black young men over the past few years have been attributed, in part, due to the implicit biases of the police officers who have killed them, even in some instances when some of the officers have been black. While officers use unnecessary force and/or shoot unarmed or innocent suspects 1-2x/year, there are millions of pedestrian and vehicle stops of minorities, especially young, people or people who have committed non-violent offenses due to discretionary stops by police "How to Reduce Racial Profiling," Greater Good Science Center Newsletter, 5/28/15).

According to Jack Glaser*, because it is hard to find a known, reliable method for reducing implicit bias, he advocates limiting the discretion police officers have in determining who they stop/pull over in the first place.

*Jack Glaser is a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his PhD in Psychology from Yale University in 1998. He conducts research on stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, examining phenomena ranging from unconscious thoughts, feelings, and motives, to discriminatory behaviors like racial profiling, to extreme manifestations like hate crime.

Another contributor to the Greater Good Science Center Newsletter, Jeremy Adam Smith, writes that "racism isn't all in individual [minds] and doesn't reveal itself only in interpersonal relations." Racism and other forms of bias are social phenomena that become part of the infrastructure of history, politics, and economics which affect the advantages that one group has over another group which impacts resource distribution and other outcomes. He writes that it is a "fundamental attribution error" to call a mass shooting an act of mental illness rather than recognizing the crime as an outcome of an" "intergroup," "situational," or "social" context in which the crime occurred.

What can we do to mitigate the harmful and in many cases devastating consequences of implicit bias. As it relates to implicit bias in policing, Jason Marsh, another writer in the Greater Good Science Center's series on implicit bias, offers some suggestions as to how we can reduce its negative impact:

1) Talk openly about racism and mental illness and really listen to each other.

2) Explicitly reject symbols of racism and hate.

3) Take steps to limit the ability of guns and other weapons to get into the hands of people who could commit mass murder.

4) Try to eliminate bias in policing.

However, implicit bias affects all of us beyond the context of policing. The good news is there is hope. According to researcher Susan Fiske of Princeton University,unconscious bias is "malleable" which means we can exercise some control over it. Apparently, practicing mindfulness and checking one's own assumptions about other people and situations can help us to catch ourselves and intervene to take action beyond our reactive "fight, flight or freeze" responses.  Though our biology - a product of the slow process of evolution causes us to have "knee-jerk" reactions, we can respond different. We have choices. 

We are all children of God:  We remember the Egyptians who suffered such terrible plagues.  As we name each plague out loud together, we can use our fingers or a spoon to take away a drop from our own cups of joy and in this way diminish our own pleasure a bit.

Ten Modern Plagues

• Aids
• Drugs
• Hunger
• Illiteracy
• Pollution
• Poverty
• Racism
• Terrorism
• Violence
• War

Had He brought all, brought all of us, brought all of us out from Egypt, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he judged just the Egyptians, just Egyptians not their idols, then it would have been enough oh Dayenu

Had he destroyed all the idols, and not smitten their first-born son, then it would have been enough. Oh Dayenu!

Had he smitten their first-born son, but not given us their wealth too, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he given us just their wealth, just their wealth and not split the sea, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he just split, just split the sea, but not taken us on dry land, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he taken us on dry land, but not drowned all our oppressors, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he drowned all our oppressors, but not supplied our needs for years, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he just supplied for our needs, but not given us the manna, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he just fed us the manna, but not given us the shabbat, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he just gave us the Shabbat, but not brought us to the mountain, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he brought us to Sinai, but not given us the Torah, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Had he given us the Torah, but not bring us into the land, then it would have been enough. Oh, dayenu.

Second Cup of Wine

The second cup of wine can symbolize intellectual freedom – freedom of the mind. Closed minds lead to misunderstanding and human suffering. We need to open our minds to new ideas and try to understand the ideas and beliefs of others. Knowledge and understanding will lead to greater freedom for all in our world.

Traditional

Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha-olam,

Bo-ray  p’ree ha-gafen.

Blessed are You, Eternal God, Creator of the universe,

who creates the fruit of the vine.

Humanistic

B’ruch-eem ha-hy-eem ba’olam.  – Precious is the life within the world.

B’ruch-eem ha-hy-eem ba-ah-dahm.  – Precious is the life within us.

B’ruch-eem ha-yotz-reem p’ree ha-gafen.  – Praised are those who bring forth the fruit of the vine. 

L’chaim!  -- To life!

Motzi-Matzah מוֹצִיא

Take the three matzot - the broken piece between the two whole ones – and hold them in your hand and recite the following blessing:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz.

Praised are you, Adonai, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who provides sustenance from the earth.

Before eating the matzah, put the bottom matzah back in its place and continue, reciting the following blessing while holding only the top and middle piece of matzah.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל אֲכִילַת מַצָּה

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al achilat matzah.

Praised are you, Adonai, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who has taught us the way of holiness through commandments, commanding us to eat matzah.

Break the top and middle matzot into pieces and distribute them everyone at the table to eat a while reclining to the left.

Roasted Lamb shank

Roasted Egg

Baytsa is the egg of life. Each of us begins as an egg and grows into manhood and womanhood. The egg is our potential. It is the power of our evolutionary past and the gift of our human inheritance. But the egg is fragile. It can easily be destroyed. It can easily fail to become what it ought to become. Growing life needs warmth, and love, and security. It needs guidance, hope, and vision. Birth is only the beginning. Human life needs the gentle care of others. It needs the encouragement of family and community. It needs the support of clean air and pure water.

Orange

Professor Susannah Heschel recounts the origins of the orange on the Seder plate in an article that she wrote for The Jewish Daily Forward in 2013:

"At an earlier point in the seder...I awsked each person to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit and eat the segment in recognition of gay and lesbian Jews and of widows, orphans, Jews who are adopted and all others who sometimes feel marginalized in the Jewish community. When we eat that orange segment, we spit out the seeds to repudiate homophobia and we recognize that in a whole orange, each segment sticks together. Oranges are sweet and juicy and remind us of the fruitfulness of gay and lesbian Jews and of the homosociality that has been such an important part of Jewish experience, whether of men in yeshivas or women in the Ezrat Nashim . "

[Heschel refuted the urban legend that during one of her lectures a man stood up and yelled, "A woman belongs on a bimah like an orange belongs on a seder plate." Heschel has written, "That incident never happened! My idea of the orange was attributed to a man, and my goal of affirming lesbians and gay men was erased."]

Charoset -- Apples, nuts, wine, and spices

Hazeret -- Bitter herbs/lettuce

Maror -- Bitter herb

Traditional

Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha-olam,

asher kid’shanu be-mitzvotav ve-tzivanu

al a-khee-lot maror.

Blessed are You, Eternal God, Creator of the universe, who makes our lives holy with Your commandments and commands us to eat maror.

Humanistic

Ba-ruch-a a-da ma b'fir-ya oo-v'too-va (2x)

Ba-ruch-a a-da ma b'chol od tif-ar-ta

Praised be the earth in its produce and goodness.

Praised be the earth in all its splendor.

Eating a sandwich of matzah and bitter herb | koreich | כּוֹרֵךְ

When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the biggest ritual of them all was eating the lamb offered as the Passover sacrifice. The great sage Hillel would put the meat in a sandwich made of matzah, along with some of the bitter herbs. While we do not make sacrifices any more, we honor this custom by eating a sandwich of matzah, charoset, and bitter herbs.

It was Rabbi Hillel who began making koreich, so as to fulfill the words of the Torah "They shall eat it (the Pesach offering) with matzot and marror" (Numbers 9:11). Rabbi Hillel is also famous for his tzedek (justice) mindset, which led him to ask "If I am not for myself who is for me? And being for my own self, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?"

We each need to find action steps, ways to better translate our commitments into effective action. What are some of the ways folks feel they can most sustainably translate our anger, confusion, and fear into effective action?

The Greco-Roman symposia which inspired our Seder, would often conclude with a custom called the epikomion, after-dinner revelry and entertainment. The word is related to the Greek epikomun, meaning dessert.

The Seder offers a version of this after-dinner treat called the Afikomen. It is the half-matzah that we set aside at the beginning of the Seder, which now provides a symbolic bookend to our meal. We begin by speaking about and tasting the bread of poverty that also serves as a reminder of freedom.

(The Humanistic Seder, The Birmingham Temple Haggadah, Rabbi Jeffrey L. Falick)

We have feasted in freedom and in joy. We have eaten with family and friends. As we conclude our feast we must remember that we cannot live by bread alone. We survive because we choose to live. We survive because others choose to help us live.

The Afeekomen is our final dessert. When we eat it, let us remember the source of our life.

We honor the richness of nature. We affirm the power of our own strength. We acknowledge the loving help of others.

All together: Where is my light? My light is in me.

Where is my hope? My hope is in me.

Where is my strength? My strength is in me.

And in you.

All together: Ay-fo o-ree? O-ree bee.

Ay-fo tik-va-tee? Tik-va-tee bee.

Ay-fo ko-khee? Kho-hee bee.

V'-gam bakh.

(The Humanist Haggadah, Rabbi Sherman Wine)

The third cup of wine symbolizes spiritual freedom. Our people have known the need for spiritual resistance in many ages. Even in the worst of circumstances, we have maintained our dignity.

Traditional

Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha-olam, borei p'ri ha-gafen.

Praised are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine.

Drink the wine, leaning to the left.

Humanistic

B’ruch-eem ha-hy-eem ba’olam. – Precious is the life within the world.

B’ruch-eem ha-hy-eem ba-ah-dahm. – Precious is the life within us.

B’ruch-eem ha-yotz-reem p’ree ha-gafen. – Praised are those who bring forth the fruit of the vine.

L’chaim! -- To life!

Opening the door for Elijah 

Elijah lived centuries after the Exodus. 

There is no connection between his actions and the Jews leaving Egypt. Yet he has become one of the central figures and symbols of the Passover Seder. Moses - the hero of the Exodus - is practically never mentioned. Yet we all know about Elijah's cup and opening the door for Elijah. 

We pour the cup but do not drink it. We open the door but no one comes in. 

The prophet Malachi says: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and awesome day of God. And he will turn the heart of fathers to their children and the heart of children to their fathers . . . "

Elijah brings together the hearts of people and generations. Elijah is the peacemaker in a world of strife and discord. Opening the door for Elijah is a harbinger of the future redemption to come. 

The Seder is not about a single moment of redemption that occurred thousands of years ago. By remembering the exodus from Egypt, we rekindle our hope in the ultimate breakthrough - however long it takes - to peace and harmony. 

Elijah is the messenger of hope. 

Would we recognize Elijah if he were standing at the door when we opened it? Can a complete stranger actually bring us peace and hope in our lives? 

Activity for Seder: 

Have you ever had an "Elijah the Prophet moment" - when a complete stranger suddenly appeared and brought you peace and hope? 

Honoring Miriam

There would have been no Exodus, no Passover, no Seder, no freedom without the many brave women who played crucial roles in the Passover drama.

There would have been no Exodus without Shifrah and Puah, the midwives who refused to follow Pharoah’s orders to drown newborn Israelite boys; without Yocheved, who hid her baby, Moses, for three months, then wove him a little basket so he could float safely down the river Nile; without Pharoah’s daughter, Thermutis, who defied her father, the king of all Egypt, when she rescued an Israelite child and drew Moses from the water.

And, last but not least, the Exodus never could have happened without Miriam the prophet—who watched over Moses, who brought her mother to Pharoah’s daughter, who led the singing and celebration after our safe crossing through the Sea of Reeds. Legend also tells us that Miriam found the wells that kept us alive during the forty years we wandered in the wilderness before we came into the Promised Land.

Let’s read the following words aloud together:

Our tradition teaches us that all of us must work together to end slavery, find freedom, and create a better world.

In this spirit, let us pour some water from our glasses to fill Miriam’s Cup.

Let us now dedicate this cup of water to the memory of Miriam, to the women of our Exodus, and to the women in our own lives who help us heal and repair our world.

Miriam's Song, Debbie Friedman

Chorus--{And the women dancing with their timbrels, Followed Miriam as she sang her song, Sing a song to the One whom we've exalted, Miriam and the women danced and danced the whole night long}

And Miriam was a weaver of unique variety The tapestry she wove was one which sang our history. With every strand and every thread she crafted her delight! A woman touched with spirit, she dances toward the light

Chorus{}

When Miriam stood upon the shores and gazed across the sea The wonder of this miracle she soon came to believe. Whoever thought the sea would part with an outstretched hand And we would pass to freedom and march to the promised land!

Chorus{}

And Miriam the prophet took her timbrel in her hand, And all the women followed her just as she had planned, And Miriam raised her voice in song- She sang with praise and might We've just lived through a miracle (yelled): We're going to dance tonight!!

Chorus{}

Fourth Cup of Wine

The fourth cup of wine reminds us that redemption is not yet complete. Not everyone in our world is yet free. This fourth cup reminds us of our responsibility to work together to bring freedom to those enslaved, peace to those at war, food to those who are hungry.

Traditional

Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha-olam, borei p'ri ha-gafen. Praised are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine. Drink the wine, leaning to the left.

Humanistic

B’ruch-eem ha-hy-eem ba’olam. – Precious is the life within the world.

B’ruch-eem ha-hy-eem ba-ah-dahm. – Precious is the life within us.

B’ruch-eem ha-yotz-reem p’ree ha-gafen. – Praised are those who bring forth the fruit of the vine.

L’chaim! -- To life!

NIRTZAH - Closing Meditation

At the end of the seder, we sing "Next Year in Jerusalem".

We sometimes think of this as a literal wish, though far fewer of us have actually found ourselves in Jerusalem for seder the following year. 

But Jerusalem is more than a place, it is a feeling, it is a hope.

We take a moment to meditate on hope - on our hope - on what our Jerusalem may look like next year.
What is your own personal Jerusalem where you hope to see yourself a year from now? 
Next year, what will I be able to say about the year past - how will I have lived it?

Bashana haba'a biYerushalayim

בשנה הבאה בירושלים

Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. And yet being alive is no answer to the problems of living. To be or not to be is not the question. The vital question is: how to be and how not to be...to pray is to recollect passionately the perpetual urgency of this vital question.

-Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel