Introduction

“There are many forms of oppression and violence in society that, for reasons of culture or tradition, remain largely unexamined. Walking the path of holistic nonviolence is about questioning ALL forms of oppression and violence, seeking to better understand their common roots, and choosing alternatives. It is about being unwilling -- directly or indirectly -- to take part in violence, to profit from the harm of others, or to willfully ignore oppression. It is about refusing to intentionally take away the dignity, bodily integrity, freedom, or the life of another individual, no matter how they may differ from ourselves, be they a fellow human or a fellow animal.

Pursuing this path is not about being perfect, but about challenging ourselves to ever expand our understanding of how our actions affect others, and over time, to come closer and closer to the ideal of nonviolence toward all. It is a long term path of self-development, integrity and service. It places a special focus on respecting, advocating for, and, when possible, empowering those who are being oppressed, exploited or killed. Most importantly, it is a path based on cherishing and protecting life, and celebrating the beauty and joy we can create together.”

                                                 -Tribe of Heart, from  Introducing Holistic Nonviolence

The Passover Seder is a special ceremonial dinner in which we gather together and retell the story of the Israelite's freedom from bondage in Egypt. The Hebrew word for this Holiday, "Pesach" has two meanings. The first is "Passing over" and refers to the fact that the angel of death passed over the Israelite's homes, when they were slaves in Egypt. Pesach is also a reference to the pascal lamb -- which was ritually sacrificed, according to the story, to protect the Israelites from the angel of death and similar sacrifices became part of early celebrations of Passover.

In biblical times people were faced with frequent food insecurity, and killing animals may have aided survival. But in America today we can abstain from such violence, without putting our survival at risk. Furthermore, we may even harm ourselves by continuing traditions that kill other animals. As Dr. William Roberts, editor of the American Journal of Cardiology has said, “When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh was never intended for human beings who are naturally herbivores.” Heart disease is our leading cause of death.

We tell the story of Passover using a "Haggadah" which means, “telling” in Hebrew, and there are many variations of Haggadah that can be used as the narrative for the Seder.

Passover invites us to not only retell this story of freedom from slavery in the past, but to also consider the plight of those who are not free today and reminds us to be welcoming to those seeking freedom. Even with no personal experience of slavery, most beings seem to passionately want freedom. Because as MLK says, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, let us take note of where others are currently not free. Can you give an example of someone who is not free? (Go around room.)

The Seder officially begins with a physical act: lighting the candles. Lighting candles and saying a blessing over them marks a time of transition, from the day that is ending to the one that is beginning, from ordinary time to sacred time. The flickering light reminds us of the importance of keeping the fragile flame of freedom alive in the world. As we light the candles, notice that just as they brighten our table, good thoughts, good words and good deeds brighten our lives.

(Light the candles and recite together) Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olam asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav, v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner shel Yom Tov. Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with laws and commanded us to light the festival lights.

Baruch atah Adonai, eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tsivanu lirdof tzedek Brucha Yah Shechinah, eloheinu Malkat ha-olam, asher kid’shatnu b’mitzvotayha vitzivatnu lirdof tzedek Blessed is the Source, who shows us paths to holiness, and commands us to pursue justice

Pesach is a time of inclusion. 

On Seder night, we metaphorically open our doors and invite others in. We say, “All who are hungry come and eat.” Today especially this is an important message. We were once slaves; poor and hungry, we honor our redemption by sharing what we have with others.   We also open the door for Elijah the Prophet as a statement of our faith in the goodness of others and ourselves and thus in our responsibility to contribute to the well-being of others when we are able to do so.

Inclusion motivates us to make this Seder plant-based. A plant based meal is more easily kosher, is inclusive for Muslims, Hindus, Catholics celebrating lent, environmentalists seeking to lower their carbon and water footprints, and for vegans.   Vegans often feel left out of traditional Seders because they find celebrating their ancestor's freedom from slavery, while sitting at table filled with the body parts of contemporary victims of slavery hypocritical and disturbing. A plant-based meal is most consistent with the spirit of Passover. We can celebrate our ancestor's freedom from slavery, without having our celebration contribute to present day enslavement of others.  This is why we have not knowingly placed on our table any items that require intentional violence against, nor enslavement of any being. Passover celebrations incorporate much symbolism, so we give careful consideration to the items that we include on our table. From the most downtrodden to the most celebrated, the message is clear: everyone is welcome and everyone is necessary.

During the Exodus, food was an issue. This is still true today too. Environmental issues are linked to diet as well as health. A meat and dairy based diet initiates a chain of events which threatens our survival. Cattle grazing leads to loss of topsoil and dessertification. Confined animal feeding operations (CAFO's) provide most of the meat and dairy in the US, but create mountains of excrement, that run into streams and the ocean creating vast dead zones, yet there is not enough land in America to feed all those who eat meat and dairy using pasture-based systems. Most of the grain currently grown, is used to fatten animals for the most privileged humans to eat -- with huge inefficiencies. It takes 5-12 pounds of grain to produce a single pound of meat. Though the world currently produces enough grain to adequately feed every human on the planet, much of that grain is used to fatten animals, who become "meat" for the wealthy, while less privileged humans go hungry. Animal agriculture is inherently unjust on many levels.

We fear the loss of effectiveness of antibiotics, and the biggest factor causing antibiotic resistance is their routine use in farm animals. We fear the emergence of new pandemics, while few realize that most infectious diseases plaguing humanity originated in animals and spread to humans as a direct result of our exploitation of them. Meat production consumes vastly more water and creates more greenhouse gasses then growing fruits, vegetables and beans. The Torah commands us to have compassion for animals, to care for our health and to repair the world (Tikkun Olam.) For all of these reasons, a plant-based diet is most consistent with Jewish ethics.

Writings from other religions can be used to support not harming other beings too.  The Prophet Mohammed said:

“A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is as bad as an act of cruelty to a human being.”

Are legumes and rice kosher for Passover?

Although the avoidance of leavened breads (called hametz) is central to what makes something kosher for Passover, around the 13th century rabbis in certain geographic areas, out of an abundance of caution, added beans and rice to the list of foods prohibited on Passover.  But this was not adopted by Rabbis in other regions.  Then in 1997 Rabbi David Golinkin of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel--Vaad Halacha said it is not only permissible, but obligatory that we consume both legumes and rice on Pesach, in order to eliminate this custom as it is divisive between Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews.  Adhering to this custom and not eating legumes tends to diminish the importance of hametz (leavened bread) on Passover. In Torah when the holiday is first pronounced by Moses the food that is directly forbidden is leavened bread, and many believe we should keep the emphasis on this.   But there is another important reason to discontinue this tradition.  Restricting legumes and rice, encourages people to consume more animal-based foods.

The Seder officially begins with a physical act: lighting the candles. Lighting candles and saying a blessing over them marks a time of transition, from the day that is ending to the one that is beginning, from ordinary time to sacred time. The flickering light reminds us of the importance of keeping the fragile flame of freedom alive in the world. As we light the candles, notice that just as they brighten our table, good thoughts, good words and good deeds brighten our lives.

(Light the candles and recite together) Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olam asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav, v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner shel Yom Tov. Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with laws and commanded us to light the festival lights.

Baruch atah Adonai, eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tsivanu lirdof tzedek Brucha Yah Shechinah, eloheinu Malkat ha-olam, asher kid’shatnu b’mitzvotayha vitzivatnu lirdof tzedek Blessed is the Source, who shows us paths to holiness, and commands us to pursue justice

Urchatz (hand washing)

Water is refreshing, cleansing, and clear, so it’s easy to understand why so many cultures and religions use water for symbolic purification. We will wash our hands to get us ready for the rituals to come and to prepare us for the meal.

To ceremoniously wash your hands, you don’t need soap, but you do need a cup to pour water over your hands. Pour water on each of your hands three times, alternating between your hands. Pass a pitcher and a bowl around so everyone can wash at their seats.

Too often during our daily lives we don’t stop and take the moment to prepare for whatever it is we’re about to do, so let's pause to consider what we hope to get out of our evening together tonight. (Go around the table and share one hope or expectation you have for tonight's seder.)

As we prepare to wash our hands, let us remember that many in the world do not have access to clean water. Clean water is a basic human right. One in ten people currently lack access to clean safe water. That’s nearly 1 billion people in the world without clean, safe drinking water. Almost 3.5 million people die every year because of inadequate water supply.

In Hebrew, urchatz means “washing” or “cleansing.” In Aramaic, sister language to Hebrew, urchatz means “trusting.” As we wash each other’s hands, let us rejoice in this act of trust, while remembering the lack of trust between those in Flint, Michigan, and those who supply and control their access to water.  Let us also remember that the number one consumer of fresh water in the US is for the raising of animals to produce meat, dairy and eggs.  In response to California’s recent drought, citizens were prohibited from watering their vegetable gardens, but no such restrictions were placed upon meat and dairy farmers.  Cumulatively, 90% of the state’s water is used in the rearing of animals.

Pass the bowl & pitcher around the table, pouring a few drops of water onto your neighbor’s hands.  

After you have poured the water over your hands, recite this short blessing.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ עַל נְטִילַת יָדָֽיִם

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al n’tilat yadayim.

We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who made us holy through obligations, commanding us to wash our hands.

By participating in a Seder we recall the injustice of slavery, Unfortunately, some 2,000 years after the time of Moses, slavery has not been eradicated in the world. The trafficking of women and children within domestic, agricultural and sex industries is an enduring reality. Anti-Slavery International estimates that there are currently 20 million people being held as slaves throughout the world. The most common form of modern slavery is debt bondage, in which a person is made to give their body as a condition of their loan repayment. Frequently, in order to afford the journey to “freedom,” these people pay with their life savings and go into debt to individuals who make promises they have no intention of keeping. Instead of opportunity, what the immigrants find when they arrive is bondage. These modern-day slaves live in all 50 states, working as farm hands, domestic servants, sweatshop and factory laborers, gardeners, restaurant and construction workers and prostitutes. “…we are living in the midst of a tragic paradox: no longer is there an underground network to guide slaves to freedom, but rather, there is an underground criminal network to entrap people and sell them into slavery.

Non-human beings are also enslaved. For example, most of the coconut that comes from Thailand (and many other places) is harvested using animal slaves. Adult macaque monkeys are shot, so that their children can be captured and trained from a young age to scale palm trees and twist free the coconuts. These monkeys have chains around their necks and are beaten to force them to do this. This is why the coconut used in this meal comes from sources that do not use animals to harvest it. But animal slavery is more insidious too – female cows are forcibly impregnated, their babies stolen from them and their milk confiscated for human profit and use. Female birds are forced through selective breading to produce eggs in numbers far exceeding what nature equipped their bodies to handle healthfully -- prolapsed uterus is common if allowed to live their natural lifespan, but usually their masters kill them first, when they are no longer profitable.

The Holocaust enslaved people too. Legal Scholar, Sherry Colb, is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. Professor Colb has written eloquently about how her family’s experience with the Holocaust has impacted her in her extraordinary essay, “Decoding, “Never Again.”

“I rarely even considered the possibility that my legal scholarship interests in criminal procedure, feminist theory, or evidence law had anything at all to do with my identity as the child of a Holocaust survivor and savior… I now understood… I was participating in doing to animals, [by consuming dairy and eggs] paralleled what I had long objected to men in patriarchal settings doing to women: treating females as reproductive machines, to be owned, violently used, sexually abused, and sometimes killed when they served no one’s purposes…I came to understand that the animal rights movement was a justice movement…When people say “Never Again” about the Holocaust,…I interpret the deep message of that plea to be that we must remember how ready people were to place the “other” outside their circle of compassion and moral concern and to demote that “other” to the status of a thing to be stripped of earthly possessions and then used and destroyed….we see this too, most dramatically, in our relationship with the “other” animals who, in virtue of their “other” DNA—regardless of what we learn about them (their use of tools, communication, maternal love, inter-species altruism, and the list goes on)—remain things for our use…People imagine that it is enough to say that they are “only animals,” just as others were content to invoke the fact that my people were “only Jews.”

Alex Hershaft, a Holocaust survivor himself has said, “My friends, the oppressive mindset is not about the victims, be they animals, Bosnians, Tutsis, Cambodian victims of Pol Pot, or European Jews. It’s about us. “Never again’ should not be about what others shouldn’t do to us, It should be about what we should not do to others. ‘Never again means that we must never perpetuate mass atrocities against other living sentient beings.”

Hundreds of thousands of children, some as young as 5, work in cocoa fields. This has been documented in Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, (leading supplier, accounting for around 40% of production) Guinea and Nigeria they spray pesticides and apply fertilizers without protective gear, use sharp tools, like machetes, sustain injuries from transporting heavy loads beyond permissible weight, do strenuous work like felling trees, and clearing and burning vegetation. They are not accompanied by their parents, and are sometimes sold into this work.

The Passover Seder celebrates our liberation as a people from the oppressive slavery we experienced in ancient Egypt. As we celebrate this freedom during Passover, we are compelled to reflect on how freedom continues to be elusive for others. We each have the power and the obligation to free today’s slaves with a “strong hand and outstretched arm.” What does this mean to us? How can we do this? We must reach beyond ourselves, beyond the usual extent of our gaze. Our realm of influence, our chance to exert that divine capacity, is not an opportunity lurking in the distance—it is right here, within reach, just beyond us.

Slavery does not end through hope and passivity, but by powerful action. Our action to end slavery is not only important for our own time but also for its effects on future generations. This is our chance to shape the future. This is why have Fair Trade chocolate on the Seder plate. (Lift the Seder plate) “This is Fair Trade chocolate. Unlike most chocolate today, it is made without the labor of child slaves, and to remind us that slavery still exists today, and that we have the freedom and obligation to choose products made without slavery” Tonight we eat chocolate to remember all the trafficked and enslaved children in the Ivory Coast who toil in the cocoa fields,