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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Passover is a story of centuries of slavery, and years of wandering in the desert; a story of perseverance amidst persecution, and faith in God and the Torah. It is a story about finding freedom in your own land. For the Jewish people, this story is central to who you have become. But it is also a story that holds within it the universal human experience, with all of its suffering and salvation. It is a part of the three great religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – that trace their origins to Abraham, and see Jerusalem as sacred. And it is a story that has inspired communities around the globe, including me and my fellow Americans.
In the United States – a nation made up of people who crossed oceans to start anew – we are naturally drawn to the idea of finding freedom in our land. To African-Americans, the story of the Exodus told a powerful tale about emerging from the grip of bondage to reach for liberty and human dignity – a tale that was carried from slavery through the civil rights movement. For generations, this promise helped people weather poverty and persecution, while holding on to the hope that a better day was on the horizon. For me personally, growing up in far-flung parts of the world and without firm roots, it spoke to a yearning within every human being for a home.
Of course, even as we draw strength from the story of God's will and His gift of freedom expressed on Passover, we know that here on Earth we must bear our responsibilities in an imperfect world. That means accepting our measure of sacrifice and struggle, and working – through generation after generation – on behalf of that ideal of freedom. As Dr Martin Luther King said on the day before he was killed – "I may not get there with you. But I want you to know that… we, as a people, will get to the promised land." So just as Joshua carried on after Moses, the work goes on – for justice and dignity; for opportunity and freedom. (President Obama Speech in Jerusalem, March 21, 2013)
Leader: The word seder means "order", and the Passover ritual follows a very specific order. Throughout the meal, we drink four glasses of wine — a symbol of the four promises made to Moses about the liberation of the Jewish people. In the book of Exodus it is written that God told Moses:
Leader: I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rid you out of their bondage. I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments. I will take you to me for a people, and ye shall know that I am the Lord, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
Leader: To begin the seder, we share this first cup of wine. We drink this cup in remembrance of the first promise: I will bring you out.
Raise your wine glass.
All: Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, borei p'ri hagafen.
(Blessed art thou, the LORD our God, who createth the fruit of the vine)
Drink your wine.
Why is there a tomato on the seder plate? This tomato brings our attention to the oppression and liberation of farmworkers who harvest fruits and vegetables here in the United States. And it reminds of us of our power to help create justice.
A tomato purchased in the United States between November and May was most likely picked by a worker in Florida. On this night when we remember the Jewish journey from slavery to freedom, we remember numerous cases of modern slavery that have been found in the Florida tomato industry. The tomato on our seder plate might have been picked by someone who has been enslaved.
Slavery is just the extreme end of a continuum of abuse; perhaps this tomato was picked by someone facing other abusive working conditions, such as wage theft, violence, sexual harassment, exposure to dangerous pesticides, or poverty level wages—just fifty cents for every 32-lb bucket of tomatoes picked and hauled—that have not changed for more than 30 years.
But a transformation is underway. Since 1993, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker organization in Florida, has been organizing for justice in the fields. Together with student groups, secular human rights organizations, and religious groups have convinced 11 major corporations, such as McDonald’s and Trader Joe’s, to join the Fair Food Program. Not only does the Fair Food program raise the wages of tomato workers, it also requires companies to source tomatoes from growers that agree to a code of conduct in the fields which includes a zero tolerance policy for forced labor and sexual harassment. Since 2011, when more than 90% of Florida’s tomato growers began to implement the agreement, over $8 million has been distributed from participating retailers to workers.
Fresh, crisp greens remind us of spring, of new beginnings, of hope. Salt water reminds us of the long, sad season of our slavery. As we mix the two together, we remember that we must work to bring the hope of spring to everyone enslaved everywhere.
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; 1820 – March 10, 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made more than thirteen missions to rescue more than 70 slaves using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry, and in the post-war era struggled for women's suffrage.
As a child in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten by masters to whom she was hired out. Early in her life, she suffered a severe head wound when hit by a heavy metal weight. The injury caused disabling seizures, narcoleptic attacks, headaches, and powerful visionary and dream experiences, which occurred throughout her life. A devout Christian, Tubman ascribed the visions and vivid dreams to revelations from God.
In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, then immediately returned to Maryland to rescue her family. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other slaves to freedom. Traveling by night, Tubman (or "Moses", as she was called) "never lost a passenger". Large rewards were offered for the return of many of the fugitive slaves, but no one then knew that Tubman was the one helping them. When the Southern-dominated Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, requiring law officials in free states to aid efforts to recapture slaves, she helped guide fugitives farther north into Canada, where slavery was prohibited.
When the American Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. After the war, she retired to the family home in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging parents. She became active in the women's suffrage movement in New York until illness overtook her. Near the end of her life, she lived in a home for elderly African Americans that she had helped found years earlier.
Martin Luther King, Jr. "Towards Freedom" delivered at Dartmouth College, 1962
Excerpt:
"This problem will not be solved until enough people all over our country come to see that it is morally wrong to practice racial segregation and discrimination. And I say "all over this country" because no section of the United States can boast of clean hands in the area of brotherhood. It is one thing to rise up with righteous indignation when the Negro is lynched in Mississippi, or when a bus of Freedom Riders is burned in Anniston, Alabama. But a white person of goodwill in the North must rise up with as much righteous indignation when the Negro cannot live in his neighborhood simply because he's a Negro; or when a Negro cannot get a position in his particular firm; or when a Negro cannot join his particular fraternity; cannot join a particular academic society. In other words, there must be a sort of divine discontent if this problem is to be solved.
You know there are certain technical words within every academic discipline which soon become stereotypes and clichés; every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature. Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in modern psychology. It is the word "maladjusted." Maladjusted. This word is already the pride of modern child psychology. And suddenly we all want to live the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But I say to you, in my conclusion, that there are certain things within our social order and in the world to which I'm proud to be maladjusted. To which all men of goodwill must be maladjusted until the Good Society is realized. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism and the self-defeating effects of physical violence. In the day when Sputniks and Explorers are dashing throughout space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war. The alternative to disarmament, the alternative to suspension of nuclear tests, the alternative to strengthening the United Nations and disarming the whole world may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation. So I say the world is in desperate need of maladjusted men and women. Maladjusted as the prophet Amos, who in the midst of the injustices of his day could cry out in words echoing across the centuries: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
...
"And I believe that through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man, into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice. If we will but do this, we will be participants in the creation of a new society, the creation of a great America. This will be the day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last."
...
For discussion:
What injustices might Martin Luther King Jr. see as remaining this year?
What examples of progress exist since this speech in 1962?
What examples of the need for more "maladjustment" is evident today?
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. 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.
These are the ten plagues which God brought down on the Egyptians:
דָּם Blood | dam |
צְפַרְדֵּֽעַ Frogs | tzfardeiya |
כִּנִּים Lice | kinim |
עָרוֹב Beasts | arov |
דֶּֽבֶר Cattle disease | dever |
שְׁחִין Boils | sh’chin |
בָּרָד Hail | barad |
אַרְבֶּה Locusts | arbeh |
חֹֽשֶׁךְ Darkness | choshech |
מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת Death of the Firstborn | makat b’chorot |
The Egyptians needed ten plagues because after each one they were able to come up with excuses and explanations rather than change their behavior. Could we be making the same mistakes? What are the plagues in your life? What are the plagues in our world today? What behaviors do we need to change to fix them?
Ten Modern Day Plagues The making of war, The teaching of hate and violence, Despoliation of the earth, Perversion of justice and of government, Fomenting of vice and crime, Neglect of human needs, Oppression of nations and peoples, Corruption of culture, Subjugation of science, learning, and human discourse, Erosion of freedoms.
When Israel was in Egypt land --- Let my people go
Oppressed so hard they could not stand --- Let my people go.
Chorus: Go down Moses, Way down to Egypt land, Tell old Pharoah To let my people go.
And G-d told Moses what to do --- Let my people go!
To lead the children of Israel through --- Let my people go!
Chorus: Go down Moses, Way down to Egypt land, Tell old Pharoah To let my people go.
Matzah is literally free of all additives, externalities and superficial good looks -- it is bread without the hot air. It represents the bare essentials.
Everything we pursue in life can be divided into necessities and luxuries. To the extent that a luxury becomes a necessity we lose an element of our freedom by being enslaved to a false need.
Jewish thought teaches that we should not submit to peer pressure, viewing ourselves as competing with others. It is far better to focus on our "personal bests" rather than "world records"; life is an arena in which we do not need others to lose in order for us to win.
On Passover we can focus on the essence and leave the externalities behind. It is a time to get rid of the ego that powers our self importance and holds us back through distracting us from our true goals.
Tonight, as we taste the bitter herbs, we share in the bitterness and disappointment of the lives of our forebears. We recognize the bitter consequences of exploitation and repression - the loss of lives and the waste of human potential
On the Seder night, we open the door for Elijah the Prophet, and we place a cup of wine on the table especially for him.
Our hopes have long been centered around Elijah since legends suggest that he will herald the time of complete human freedom. But he will come only when people have prepared the way for him. This simply means that we, the all, are Elijah. We must liberate ourselves from prejudice and injustice. We must truly listen to each other for better iunderstanding. We need to remember our goal of creating a world where all people will be free, just as we were liberated from slavery in ancient Egypt.
Song: Eliyahu Ha'Navi
E-lee-ah-hu hah-nah-vee
E-lee-ah-hu hah-tish-bee
E-lee-ah-hu A-lee-ah-hu
E-lee-ah-hu ha-gil-a-dee
Bim-hay-rah B'yah-may-nu
Yah-voh a-lay-nu
Eem mah-she-ach ben-David
Eem-mah-she-ach ben-David
E-lee-ah-hu hah-nah-vee
E-lee-ah-hu hah-tish-bee
E-lee-ah-hu A-lee-ah-hu
E-lee-ah-hu ha-gil-a-dee
Translation: Elijah the Prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, Elijah the Gileadite, Come to us quickly and in our day.
If you miss me at the back of the bus, you can't find me nowhere, come on over to the front of the bus, I'll be riding up there. (chorus)
If you miss me on the picket line, you can't find me nowhere, come on over to the city jail, I'll be roaming over there. (chorus)
If you miss me in the Mississippi River you can't find me nowhere come on over to the swimming pool I'll be swimming right there. (chorus)
If you miss me in the cotton fields you can't find me nowhere come on over to the courthouse I'll be voting right there. (chorus)
If you miss me at the back of the bus you can't find me nowhere come on over to the front of the bus I'll be riding up there. (chorus)
We shall overcome,
We shallovercome,
We shall overcome
Some day.
Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome,
Some day!
We shalllive in peace,
We shall live in peace
We shall live in peace
Some day.
Deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall live in peace
Someday!
