LEADER:

When a Seder falls on Saturday night, the end of Shabbat, we say Havdalah before lighting the festival candles. Havdallah is a ceremony that marks the separation between Shabbat and the beginning of the week. Tonight, we mark the separation between the end of Shabbat and another day of Pesach, ben kodesh l'kodesh. The havdalah candle is comprised of many wicks braided to come together to create a large, single flame - much larger, brighter and warmer than if there were only a singlewick. Some questions we can consider are:

• Why make such a big deal about the separate wicks if they are a single flame?
• Which is more important - the separate wicks or the single flame? How does this add meaning to our Passover seder tonight?

The Blessing over Wine

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּֽפֶן.

Baruch atah, Adonai, Elohaynu melech ha’olam, boray pri hagafen.

Blessed are You, God, our Lord, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

The Blessing over Spices

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא מִינֵי בְשָׂמִים.

Baruch atah, Adonai, Elohaynu melech ha’olam, boray minay vesamim.

Blessed are You, God, our Lord, King of the universe, Creator of the different spices.

The Blessing over the Candle

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא מְאוֹרֵי הָאֵשׁ.

Baruch atah, Adonai, Elohaynu melech ha’olam, boray me’oray ha’aysh.

Blessed are You, God, our Lord, King of the universe, Creator of the fire’s lights.

The Blessing over Havdalah

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַמַּבְדִיל בֵּין קֹֽדֶשׁ לְחוֹל, בֵּין אוֹר לְחֹֽשֶׁךְ, בֵּין יִשְׂרָאֵל לָעַמִּים, בֵּין יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי לְשֵֽׁשֶׁת יְמֵי הַמַּעֲשֶׂה. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, הַמַּבְדִיל בֵּין קֹֽדֶשׁ לְחוֹל.

Baruch atah, Adonai, Elohaynu melech ha’olam, hamavdilbayn kodesh lechol bayn or lechoshech bayn Yisrael la’amim bayn yom hashevi’i leshayshet yemay hama’aseh.Baruch atah, Adonai, hamavdil bayn kodesh lechol.

Blessed are You, God, our Lord, King of the universe, who separates between the holy and the profane; between the light and dark; between Israel and the other nations; between the seventh day and the six days of the week. Blessed are You, God, who separates between the holy and the profane.

When earlier we recalled the story of the Exodus, we acknowledged it as a work of fiction. Yet only one hundred years ago, most scholars still believed that the tale was true in many of its details. 

Then they started digging … literally … with shovels and pails. It eventually became clear that the story we had told ourselves for millennia did not take place. There had been no mass flight from Egypt, no conquest of the land of Israel, otherwise known as Canaan. The Israelites were natives of the land; they were Canaanites themselves!

So how did the story come to be?

In the late second millennium B.C.E., Egypt dominated Canaan. The pharaohs demanded regular tribute from vassal kings who in turn exploited their own peasant populations.

According to some scholars, in the thirteenth century B.C.E. the region experienced significant upheavals and power shifts. Taking advantage of these changes, many peasants rebelled, throwing off the yoke of their vassal kings. Archeological remains reveal that some fled to and cleared Israel’s central highlands, where tribes and towns began to form. In a long, complicated and gradual process they became known as the Israelites. Did this contribute to inspiring our story?

If so, the Exodus tale may have served as an allegory about liberation from Egypt’s ongoing domination and exploitation of Canaan’s populace. The narrative may also reflect other ancient regional instabilities. Famines and droughts provoked repeated migrations. The Torah’s stories about Abraham and Sara’s journey to Canaan and their grandchildren’s descent to Egypt may disclose memories of these population shifts.

Other historians suggest an alternative possibility. They propose that the Exodus story was influenced by the experience of one tribe, the Levites, that may have come to Israel from Egypt. Many Levite names, including Moses and Aaron, are Egyptian in origin. The Levites were cultic experts and possessed no territory. Were they the outsiders who circulated the original Exodus tale?

The details are buried in history, but history gives wings to legends and legends yield heroes like Moses. Over hundreds of years, our story emerged with its account of one great man, dedicated to justice and to the liberation of his people. He challenged Pharaoh and led the Israelites to freedom. For millennia he has inspired many others who have been downtrodden or enslaved to bring about their own deliverance. And that’s why we told it tonight!

For more on these ideas, see S. David Sperling, The Original Torah: The Political Intent of the Bible’s Writers (New York: New York University Press, 1998); and Richard Elliott Friedman, The Exodus [New York: HarperOne, 2017].

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Rabbi Jeffrey L. Falick, Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism

Чем отличается эта ночь от других ночей?

Почему во все ночи мы можем есть и хамец, и мацу, а в эту ночь только мацу?

Почему во все ночи мы едим разную зелень, а в эту ночь – горькую зелень?

Почему во все ночи мы не обмакиваем еду, в эту ночь обмакиваем дважды – карпас в соленую воду и марор в харосет?

Почему во все другие ночи мы можем есть и сидя прямо и облокотившись, а в эту ночь все мы едим облокотившись?

The Wise Child

(Enters and sits near the leader. He is eager and earnest.)

"Tateh,   teach me everything about Pesach...all the laws, the customs, the rituals...everything! I want to learn it all!"

The Wicked Child

(Enters and Stands, glaring at the leader. He is angry and full of contempt.)

"Dachau, Mumbai, terrorism, murder. What good have all your pious prayers done you?! To hell with your ritual, and to hell with you!"

(He sits.)

The Simple Child

(Enters, walks over and stands beside the leader. She is curious and perhaps a bit confused.)

" Tateh, what does it mean?"

(The leader responds:)

"Come, sit with us and I'll explain it to you."

(She sits.)

The Child Who Doesn't Know How to Ask

(She simply walks over to the leader and gives him a hug. The leader shows her to her place. She sits. The leader continues the seder.)

There are three traditional "beginnings" to the Pesach story:

"My father was a fugitive Aramean, and he went down to Egypt..."
"Our ancestors were once idol-worshipers..."
"We were once slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt..."

Which beginning do you prefer? How does where and when  and how  we begin the telling influence the tale itself?

In the Haggadah in front of you, one or more passages are bookmarked. Read your section of the story to yourself. Tonight we are all of us Ravs (rabbis/teachers) and all of us disciples, we are all children and all learned elders. When your turn arrives, story-tell from the book or impromptu.