Tonight we gather together to celebrate Passover, our holiday of freedom. We will eat a great meal together, enjoy (at least!) four glasses of wine, and tell the story of our ancestors’ liberation from slavery in Egypt. We welcome our friends and family members from other backgrounds to reflect with us on the meaning of freedom in all our lives and histories. We will consider the blessings in our lives, pledge to work harder at freeing those who still suffer, and begin to cast off the things in our own lives that oppress us.

At the Seder we tell the Biblical story of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Seder means “order” in Hebrew, which tells us that people all over the world tell the story in the same order on the very same evening. The special book that we read the Passover story from is called a Haggadah. The Passover story is about the relationship between the Jewish people of the Bible and God.

We start the Sedar by saying the blessing over the wine. The cup of wine stands for the sweetness of life and the joy we feel when we are together. We say, "Thank you God, for the grapes that grow to make wine for our holiday celebration."

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָפֶן.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, borei p'ri hagafen.

Praised are you, Adonai, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who has created the fruit of the vine.

On the table, we have a special plate called a Seder plate. The Seder plate has very special foods on it that help us to tell our story.

The traditional items are:
• Parsley
• Bitter herbs
• Chopped apples and nuts with wine, called “charoses”
• A lamb bone
• An egg
• A separate plate or basket with Matzah
 

Urchatz is the traditional washing of hands before beginning the seder.

Usually done by pouring water on each hand over a sink or basin of some kind, we symbolically wash the hands of the person sitting nearest to us with a cloth dipped in warm water. As we stroke each hand with the cloth, we call up the loving memory of our grandmothers by saying each of their full names, one for each hand.

During Karpas we dip the greens in the salt water. We have salt water to remember the tears of the jews when they cried from getting hurt so much by the Egyptians.

Yachatz – Breaking the Middle Matzah
The leader reads: I will break the middle matzah and save one half of it for dessert. I will hide it, and later, the children will help us find it so we can end our Seder when it is time. I am returning the other half of it to the table to be eaten later.

As I do, I say (hold up the remaining Matzah): “This is the bread of our affliction. Let all who are hungry, come and eat. Let all who need, share the hope of Passover.

Passover is a Jewish holiday, but it isn't just for Jews. We welcome our non-Jewish friends to our celebration of liberation. We invite you all to share this night, as we take this opportunity to celebrate our freedom and hope for the freedom of all those who suffer.

We gather together tonight as a family of families to remember the bondage of our ancestors, so that we may be inspired to cherish the freedom we now have.

Let us sit together, and hope and wish for:

Freedom from bondage and oppression

Freedom from hunger and freedom from want

Freedom from hatred and freedom from fear

Freedom to think and freedom to speak

Freedom to teach and freedom to learn

Freedom to love and freedom to share

Freedom to hope and freedom to rejoice

Soon, in our days, Amen

The formal telling of the story of Passover is framed as a discussion with lots of questions and answers. The tradition that the youngest person asks the questions reflects the centrality of involving everyone in the seder. The rabbis who created the set format for the seder gave us the Four Questions to help break the ice in case no one had their own questions. Asking questions is a core tradition in Jewish life. If everyone at your seder is around the same age, perhaps the person with the least seder experience can ask them – or everyone can sing them all together.

מַה נִּשְׁתַּנָּה הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה מִכָּל הַלֵּילות

Ma nishtana halaila hazeh mikol haleilot?

Why is this night different from all other nights?

שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָֽנוּ אוֹכלין חָמֵץ וּמַצָּה  הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה כֻּלּוֹ מצה  

Shebichol haleilot anu ochlin chameitz u-matzah. Halaila hazeh kulo matzah.

On all other nights we eat both leavened bread and matzah.
Tonight we only eat matzah.

שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָֽנוּ אוֹכְלִין שְׁאָר יְרָקוֹת הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה מָרוֹר

Shebichol haleilot anu ochlin shi’ar yirakot haleila hazeh maror.

On all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables,
but tonight we eat bitter herbs.

שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אֵין אָֽנוּ מַטְבִּילִין אֲפִילוּ פַּֽעַם אחָת  הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה שְׁתֵּי פְעמים

Shebichol haleilot ain anu matbilin afilu pa-am echat. Halaila hazeh shtei fi-amim.

On all other nights we aren’t expected to dip our vegetables one time.
Tonight we do it twice.

שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָֽנוּ אוֹכְלִין בֵּין יוֹשְׁבִין וּבֵין מְסֻבִּין.  :הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה כֻּלָּֽנוּ מְסֻבין

Shebichol haleilot anu ochlin bein yoshvin uvein m’subin. Halaila hazeh kulanu m’subin.

On all other nights we eat either sitting normally or reclining.
Tonight we recline.

Blessing one’s children originates in the Bible.. Let us now bless all of the children in our midst. As we bless them, we commit ourselves to the dream of a world where all children are free to go to school, are safe from violence, have loving adult supervision, and have the basic necessities they need in order to grow up to be their best selves.

Adults, please first place your hands on the heads of your children, as we read together:

May God bless you and keep you.”

“May God’s face shine upon you and favor you”.

“May God’s face turn to you

and grant you peace."

The story of Passover: It's a long time ago. We're slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh is a nightmare. We cry out for help. God brings plagues upon the Egyptians. We escape, bake some matzoh. God parts the Red Sea. We make it through; the Egyptians aren't so lucky. We wander 40 years in the desert, eat manna, get the Torah, wind up in Israel, get a new temple, enjoy several years without being persecuted again.

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.

These are the ten plagues which God brought down on the Egyptians:

Blood | dam | דָּם

Frogs | tzfardeiya |  צְפַרְדֵּֽעַ

Lice | kinim | כִּנִּים

Beasts | arov | עָרוֹב

Cattle disease | dever | דֶּֽבֶר

Boils | sh’chin | שְׁחִין

Hail | barad | בָּרָד

Locusts | arbeh | אַרְבֶּה

Darkness | choshech | חֹֽשֶׁךְ

Death of the Firstborn | makat b’chorot | מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת

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? Make up your own list. 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? 

We have now told the story of Passover…but wait! We’re not quite done. There are still some symbols on our seder plate we haven’t talked about yet. Rabban Gamliel would say that whoever didn’t explain the shank bone, matzah, and marror (or bitter herbs) hasn’t done Passover justice.

The shank bone represents the Pesach, the special lamb sacrifice made in the days of the Temple for the Passover holiday. It is called the pesach, from the Hebrew word meaning “to pass over,” because God passed over the houses of our ancestors in Egypt when visiting plagues upon our oppressors.

The matzah reminds us that when our ancestors were finally free to leave Egypt, there was no time to pack or prepare. Our ancestors grabbed whatever dough was made and set out on their journey, letting their dough bake into matzah as they fled.

The bitter herbs provide a visceral reminder of the bitterness of slavery, the life of hard labor our ancestors experienced in Egypt.

The second cup of wine is dedicated to all those struggling for freedom today, struggling to be freed from economic oppression, psychological imprisonment, and debt bondage.

Let the second cup stand for this struggle.

Together:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheynu Melech Ha’Olam Borey P’ree Hagafen.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine.

The moment's near when we shall eat

a snack, a meal, a Seder treat

Our customs held in high esteem

that when we eat our hands be clean

For all that we can do or say

a blessing must precede the way

(Participants should wash their hands and recite the following blessing:) 

Ba-ruch A-tah A-do-nai, E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ha-o-lam,

a-sheer keed-sha-nu be-meetz-vo-tav, vee-tzee-va-nu

al n'tee-lat ya-da-yeem.

O Holy One of Blessing, Your Presence fills creation;

You made us special with your mitzvot, and You have

instructed us to wash our hands.

The matzah is an important part of the seder, because it represents the Jews exit of Egypt and the rush that they were in. They were trying to exit Egypt, and they were making bread, but it didn't rise, and they were in a rush to leave, so that pharaoh didn't change his mind and not let them leave. The bread turned into matzah, and that is why we eat matzah.

Dipping the bitter herb in sweet charoset | maror  |מָרוֹר   

  In creating a holiday about the joy of freedom, we turn the story of our bitter history into a sweet celebration. We recognize this by dipping our bitter herbs into the sweet charoset. We don’t totally eradicate the taste of the bitter with the taste of the sweet… but doesn’t the sweet mean more when it’s layered over the bitterness?

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּֽנוּ עַל אֲכִילַת מרוֹר

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al achilat maror.

We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who made us holy through obligations, commanding us to eat bitter herbs.

We have arrived at the Hillel sandwich. It is the moment when we eat maror (the bitter herbs) and the charoset (the sweet apple and nut mixture) on a piece of matzah. Why do we do such a thing? We do it to tell our story. The holidays of Passover, Chanukah and Purim remind us just how close the Jewish people has come to utter destruction and how we now celebrate our strength and our survival with great joy, remembering God’s help and our persistence, and our own determination to survive.

Throughout each year and throughout our lifetimes, we challenge ourselves to remember that even in times of strength, it is better to sense our vulnerability, rather than bask in our success. We all have memories of times in which bitter and sweet were mixed in our lives, all in the same bite. Judaism says, sometimes life is like that. We can celebrate and mourn all at the same time. It turns out it is healthy and right to consider these korech moments.

Eating the meal! | shulchan oreich | שֻׁלְחָן עוֹרֵךְ

Enjoy! But don’t forget when you’re done we’ve got a little more seder to go, including the final two cups of wine!

Finding and eating the Afikomen | tzafoon | צָפוּן

The playfulness of finding the afikomen reminds us that we balance our solemn memories of slavery with a joyous celebration of freedom. As we eat the afikomen, our last taste of matzah for the evening, we are grateful for moments of silliness and happiness in our lives.

If you’ve eaten and been satisfied, thank God for all that we have been given

Sing together the blessing over the third cup of wine.

As we come to the end of the seder, we drink one more glass of wine. With this final cup, we give thanks for the experience of celebrating Passover together, for the traditions that help inform our daily lives and guide our actions and aspirations.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree hagafen.

We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who creates the fruit of the vine 

This year whilst drinking the fourth cup of wine I want you to think about those are plagued by indifference, by a lack of interest in the oppression of others, by a lack of interest in understanding the wrongs in the world and by apathy.
 

At this point we fill a cup for Elijah and open the door to let him in. Tradition states that before the Messiah comes the Prophet Elijah will come to ignite an era of peace.Let us open the door and instead of passively waiting for that era of peace think what it is we can do in our lives to bring it closer.

In every generation, we all should feel as though we ourselves had gone forth from Egypt. We end our Passover Seder by saying in unison:

May slavery give way to freedom.
May hate give way to love.
May ignorance give way to wisdom.
May despair give way to hope.
Next year, at this time, may everyone, everywhere, be free!

We are, each of us, working to meet challenges in our lives, but we are grateful to be here together for tonight’s seder. Wherever the next year takes us, we look forward to celebrating Pesach again, together with the friends and family—new and long beloved.